Arsenal travel to Man City next weekend and they know that they could drop to 12 points behind the League leaders if they lose so they will have to be on top form to take something away from the game. Arsenal always do best when our fans expect them to lose, and as Arsene Wenger says, the game at the Etihad is “a good opportunity for us to show we have quality”
“It’s normal that people have them as champions-elect because they are on a good run and people always extend these good runs to the end of the season but, at some stage, they have to be stopped,” Wenger said. “It’s true because nobody does that, nobody runs away [with the title]. We can just focus on the game, prepare well and give our best.”
Wenger was asked whether the pressure increased on players from game to game during an unbeaten run. “Yes, but the most difficult pressure is when you don’t win,” Wenger continued. “When you win, OK, you have a kind of pressure but the real pressure in our job is when you don’t win and you have absolutely to win.”
Well Arsenal ‘absolutely’ have to win next week, but what about City? Do they expect to carry on winning every game? Not according to Kevin De Bruyne, who said. “To go unbeaten?, It’s very hard. I don’t think it will be possible. The level of competition is so high, in every team. It’s not like, with all respect, 10 or 15 years ago where you had a couple of teams that wouldn’t be able to win against the top ones.
“Every game is hard and you need to be mentally there. But as long as it keeps going it’s good.”
“We were winning these games like against West Brom last season, we dropped points against the big clubs,”
Well, Arsenal are a ‘big club’ in top form with 10 wins in our last 12 games, and an extremely good draw away at Chelsea, so there is no reason for the Arsenal fans to expect a poor showing at the Etihad. City may be 5 points clear at the tip of the table but weren’t they in the same position at this point last season?
It is time for Man City’s blip and after the Arsenal game there is Manchester United, Spurs and Liverpool coming up in the coming weeks, plus the distraction of Champions League football this week too, so the top of the table will all seem a little bit closer by the New Year….
Come on You Gunners! Onwards and Upwards!
Admin
sorry but no chance of a result against city they will destroy us just look at the way we defended against swansea they caused us problems and they are a average team city with there pace and movement will expose all our weaknesses and will be damage limitation job. Wenger would need to set up as he did at chelsea to make it a game but he wont have the balls to leave out ozil and sanchez and put in 2 players that dont have there quality but will put a shift in for the team!!
Am not sure Man City will be too confident of beating us. They are not a perfect team and do have weaknesses. Arsenal on the other side have defensive problems but if we can fix it and play well, it can be anybody’s game on the day. Man City nearly went out of Carabo Cup!!
So did arsenal you clown
You really don’t have to respond to my comments if you are out to call me name, I did not direct my comments to you personally so please leave the abuse out of it!!!
Agreed
Because you talk nonsense anything can happen in cup games as for our defence it’s one of if not best in league and we were never in this position last year of being 5 points clear and playing so well
What is a city fan doing here??? Admin is this EPL.com?
And I am not a clown, a football game can go anyway on any given day! We defeated Man City to reach the final of FA and everyone said it is not possible to beat Chelsea at the final considering our make shift defence, but we did it! So please keep your abuse to yourself and realise everyone that speak on this forum are not the same! Even if Man City are the best team that has ever being and they are playing against the team I support, I will still stay with my team and a defeat to them is not the end of the world!
Admin: Please can we keep out insults and name calling from our posts and contributions? I think fans should realise that everyone has a right to their opinion whether you agree with them or not.
I don’t see arsenal beating man city i know we used to give them tough time but not with this current squad that are prone to mistake all the time from the back line and no protection from the defensive midfiders which is my greatest fear in all our matches this season so far…..but i will still support arsenal to win the match as loyal fan
A loyal fan don’t accept defeat easily. It’s a game btw two top teams, so it can go either way!
We all know the Truth man city is favorite, sometimes in life we need to be honest
I think its the dest test possible but i also think its coming at a time where we are still not ready. We are not in the best form and city are purring! Optimism is one thing but to expect a good result at this stage with the squad we have is just plain insanity!! No, im not a pessimist, im a realist!! We needed to invest during the summer and we missed the boat (again).. City WILL go 12 points clear and our chalenge for the EPL will be over by the beginning of November.. Sorry, it’s just too obvious and predictable..
Totally agree and I love other realists, always being one myself. Of course we can all admire loyalty to our team, that is laudable, usually. But there are times when being loyal to the status quo acts directly against necessary change for the better. As a realist, it is this false loyalty that irritates me a lot. We can surely agree that we ALL want what is best for our club and its future. Virtually all fans want Kroenke out of our club -I have seen NONE and no posts that want him to remain and I doubt that anyone else has either – and fan polls show us that more than 80% would like Wenger to retire (though of this 80% some , like me, want it today and others at end of season BUT they all want him out by seasons end. Hardly any at all want him to remain after end of next sesson. THEREFORE, loyalty to exactly WHAT, is what’s vitally important. Loyalty to the future improvement of our team and whose who run it seems overwhelmingly important to the huge majority of us. Being realistic about where the team is , where it’s strong and where it’s weak is surely just being a good fan, keen to help improvement and I see no way anyone can sensibly say otherwise. I dislike personal abuse and try , usually to avoid it when it is merely a matter of differing opinions, to which we are all entitled. But when virtually ALL can see our many problems in challenging at the very top level with the current set up AND when the current set up are too smug and too arrogant (as at the AGM last week), to even listen to real fans who care passionately, a campaign of hate and disobedience is the ONLY WAY to force vitally necessary change. Why should we be polite and respecful to those who are harming and holding our club back from being at the very top! In other words to Kroenke, Gazidis, Sir Arrogant Chips KESWICK and to WENGER who refuses to ever learn from his constant mistakes. I say we should not be respectful towards these harmful folk; not if we truly want to help our club. What do others think please? If you can bring yourself to actually explaining WHY YOU THINK whichever way you do, that would truly stimulate proper debate. Thank you.
O ye of little faith. It is not insanity to expect a good result against Man City. Few gave us a chance against Chelsea and we almost beat them. We beat City in the FA Cup last season when nobody gave us a chance. We can beat them. That’s why we have the word upset in sports.
Of course Arsenal can beat Man City come next Sunday. They are definately beatable. Wolves almost beat them in the Carabao cup recently and West Brom put two goals pass them last weekend. So with a frontline like ours, and the fact that City won’t pack the bus ,but come at us, anything can happen and will surely happen. City’s defence is suspect and is not better than ours.We can’t afford to be twelve points behind them after the match.The worst result we can get from that match is a draw. A score draw.
I really miss Cazorla…
Remember that dance step at Etihad after scoring against City? Am missing him too.
Hopefully we’ll start well in the first half, not leave it until the second half to start playing! I think the first goal will be crucial. We usually have a good game against them, so I hope everyone will be on form and we give it a good go!
COYG
take ozil out of the equation and replace him with iwobi. With that we re fine. My prefered line-up….cech,kos,mert,monreal,bellerin,xhaka,ramsey,kolasinac,iwobi,alexis,lacazette. Dunno if u agree with me on this…..
All Wenger needs to do is play Coquelin in place of ozil and sit back. Play a 3-5-2 formation with Sanchez and lacazette up front. Ramsey is the only one of three midfielders with licence to roam. We will get a result
But that man wenger is crazy, he won’t learn
Learn from what? your tactics? Arsenal fans! We believe we know it all.
No team in the epl can win 10/11/12 games in a row.It can only happen in Spain and
Germany. That’s why the Spanish league is a dull one compared to the epl.
That’s why its about time MC lose. The epl is so competitive and I hope it will
continue .
I just hope the FA can make the game more level by making sure all teams have a minimum
of at least 5 homegrown players.Otherwise the moneybags teams will be a league within a league.
Thats because in epl are not teams like barcelona or madrid that can overplayed every other team…but pep are doing rhat with city, not like us, who need oir player to overplayed to get a 5th place…leta chexk out how was going for epl on cl and look at barcelona, madrid or atletico..lets start being more humble men…
I’m not the one to say that we’re gonna walk into the Etihad, and beat the crap out of Man City but I can’t believe how many negative comments are here. Are they a good team? Yes. But I like to think that so are we. We’ve beat them before, and I think we can do it again. They are a high pressing, possession oriented team like Liverpool so we need to approach it with the right mentality and a different game plan. Everyone needs to be well organized in defense, sit tight, and hit them on the counters. We gotta take our chances, make no silly mistakes, and we have a chance. Were Huddersfield favorite to win against United? Of course, not. But they did it, and I think we can take care of City too.
Oh Mehn! I love encouraging write-ups ??
Can’t expect nor wait for a dip of Man City, they are an engine running and nothing can change this, Gardiola took a minute but it’s on and he is focused on going all the way, distance teams each week as he does…He doesn’t wait for a bad result or dip of other teams but focused on winning and performing well each game.
We must beat them and win all our games to stand a chance to get back to their level. If we do so and they slip one game, we can put pressure on them, not wait on a dip, 10 games and 9 points ahead is a clear statement made by Man City and reality… They are super focused and win games even tight, but win like champions do…Let’s play our best football, speed and efficient, we’ll cause them lots of problems then, not expect a dip or injuries to beat them.
If we can’t win we must not lose..
We’re gonna crush them…
COYG