Thoughts on Arsenal v Man City – plus Aguero, Ozil and Alexis

Wenger coy on transfers and Chelsea but is he prepared for City? by KM

Hi guys. So I know that Man City is still four days away, but you kinda get the sense that the talk is evolving around our game with them on Monday night. It is labeled the title decider because we and them are the only top teams who look relatively OK, despite our own problems in the league.

Aguero has returned to training for the visitors and I will certainly not be surprised to see him start the game too. Bony has looked way off of what Aguero could offer up front and if he is fit, don’t raise any eyebrows if you see him on the team sheet.

I feel like we are slight favorites for this one. I watched City recently and they didn’t look that good. They got some results, but they are badly missing Kompany at the back and looking at the fact we’ve scored in most of the games we played so far, we should be able to cause them problems.

Make no mistake though, it will be tough game. When you come to the bigger occasions the motivation is bigger and Joe Hart said it himself “we need to be a million percent better against Arsenal” and I expect them to be, but nevertheless we are at home and on current form City are there for the taking.

Wenger said that Alexis has a slim chance to play, but rational thinking will leave him on the bench, even if he is fit. The lack of Coquelin in midfield is the big worry for me. His game vs Man City at the Etihad last season made his mark on our squad, but he was overplayed due to the lack of adequate replacements and we will likely start Flamini again. Against Yaya Toure how he and Ramsey turn up will be key, because Toure is the main driving force of City right now.

Our boss also said something like this – “we will be open for business in the market because we are short”. Typical Wenger answer for me. On the surface it looks like we’ll be in the market, but Wenger doesn’t like January although we’ve signed some players like Monreal, Arshavin and Kalstrom in that period, all with different success in the club.

In other parts of the press-conference the media tried to pour oil into the flame of the Wenger – Mourinho story, but the boss showed class and reflected all the taunts from those piranha journalists, so that they don’t have anything to bite on afterwards. You can bet that if a certain manager was asked the reversed questions he’d have a thing or two to say.

Finally, Mesut was given what is a well deserved break. I like this touch from Wenger because players get destroyed on those fields. When the CL is on, they play 2 or 3 games each week and English football doesn’t have a winter break, so I feel that giving someone 2 days off, is just enough to rest his body, yet not too much to lose shape and we do need Mesut, who’s been influential to our form, besides he had a muscle scare before our last two games.

How nice would it have been if we did the same with Le Coq, Cazorla, Ramsey, Jack, Theo and so on. Regardless though, winter is coming! And that means it is time for a well deserved winter vacation off of work and hopefully we will be greeted by the best Arsenal gift, starting with a win over City on Monday.

Till then, enjoy!

Konstantin