Two of the main title contenders clash on Sunday as Manchester City host Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium. Last season Arsenal secured a 2-1 victory at home over Manchester City, while the reverse fixture ended 2-2. The two clubs have also met in a friendly match this summer, which was won by Arsenal 3-2. Manchester City have not beaten Arsenal since 2013, when they recorded a memorable 6-3 victory at home, but since then there were six competitive matches between the two teams.
Manchester City have recovered from last weekend's 4-2 defeat at Leicester City with a 2-0 home win over Watford in midweek, but they are down in fourth place and a whole seven points behind leaders Chelsea. They need to get a winning streak going if they want to keep up with Chelsea, but they have been unable to record more than two consecutive league wins since September. Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho are still suspended following the red cards in the defeat against Chelsea, while Vincent Kompany and Ilkay Gundogan are injured.
Arsenal had their long unbeaten streak snapped this week as they lost 2-1 at Everton despite holding a 1-0 lead. However, they have not lost consecutive away Premier League matches since 2014. They are tied on 34 points with Liverpool in second spot, six points behind leaders Chelsea. The injured list is still quite long, with Chuba Akpom, Santi Cazorla, Mathieu Debuchy, Yaya Sanogo and Shkodran Mustafi still out of contention. Aaron Ramsey should recover but will most likely have a spot on the bench, while Per Mertesacker and Danny Welbeck have returned to training but will need more time to build up their fitness.
Probable line-ups:
Man City: Bravo - Zabaleta, Stones, Otamendi, Kolarov - Toure, Fernando - Sterling, De Bruyne, Silva - Iheanacho
Arsenal: Cech - Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal - Coquelin, Xhaka - Walcott, Ozil, Iwobi - Sanchez
My prediction: 2-2 draw.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Man City win - 2.15
Draw - 3.60
Arsenal win - 3.50
12/21/16, 01:12:26 AM
