Prediction: Manchester City vs Arsenal

17th December 2011

Premiership leaders Manchester City have just lost their first league game this season, but Roberto Mancini’s side cannot afford to look back on the Chelsea defeat as they’ve got resurgent Arsenal arriving to Etihad Stadium. The Gunners arrive to Manchester after the hard-fought victory over Everton looking to hurt City’s title bid as well as return to the Premier League title race.

Even if a defeat can never come at the right time, this was really a bad time for Manchester City to suffer their first loss of the season, especially if we take into consideration that the Citizens had taken the lead at Stamford Bridge just a couple of minutes into the game. Everybody is now waiting to see how Roberto Mancini’s side is going to react to the first real setback of the league campaign, and with in-form Arsenal coming to Etihad at the start of the hectic Christmas schedule, City players will have to be at their best if they want to keep their advantage over the title rivals. Manchester City have already beaten Arsenal this season, as they eliminated the Gunners from the Carling Cup, and that can give them small psychological advantage, but considering that both managers then fielded second string line-ups, this is likely to be a completely different game. As I have already mentioned, City desperately need a win to stay one step ahead of the nearest rivals and with Arsenal also looking for a victory, everything suggests that we will see a very open game at Eastlands. In the absence of Gael Clichy and Aleksandar Kolarov, Pablo Zabaleta is set to start at left-back, with Micah Richards returning to right-back after recovering from injury.

Arsenal looked completely lost at the start to the season and after the defeat in North London derby at White Hart Lane, it seemed that the Gunners would not be able to mount a serious top 4 challenge, let alone fight for the title. However, two and a half months later, Arsene Wenger’s side have got a chance to close the gap behind Premier League leaders to just six points and this shows how much the Gunners have raised their game during this period. While some would say that amazing Robin van Persie has to take most of the credit for Arsenal’s run of seven wins in last eight Premiership games, the reality is that the entire team have been on top of their game over the last few months, even if the Dutchman is clearly the number one player on the team sheet. With no fresh injury worries to report, Arsene Wenger is set to field the same side that started the Everton game, meaning that Johan Djourou and Thomas Vermaelen will operate as full-backs.

Conclusion

The odds are that neither side would be too happy with one point from this match and that alone should make up for an exciting game. With both Manchester City and Arsenal set to adopt attacking approach, we could easily see goals galore at Etihad Stadium, so over 2.5 goals looks like a good bet here.

Verdict: Over 2.5 goals

Best Odds: 2/3

Bookmaker: Betfair