Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is insisting that his side will not travel to Manchester City this weekend with the sole intention to defend.
The Gunners have avoided defeat in four of their last six away matches against the Citizens, and will be keen to add to that statistic this weekend, Our rivals have much the better form of late however, and few will be confident of our side picking up all three points this Sunday.
Our boys stuttered to a 0-0 draw at home to Europa League opponents Red Star Belgrade on Thursday night, but none of our regular starters were in the starting line-up, and our squad should be fresh for Sunday’s crunch clash.
Arsene Wenger insists that he will be going to the Etihad to play football, and is not planning go there looking for the draw.
“We will of course try to play our game, we will not hide,” Wenger said when asked of his plans.
“When we go there, we want to defend well, but you cannot go there only focused on defending, we want as well to play with the ball and create dangerous situations. Sometimes the best way to defend is to attack.”
The interviewer continued to question the tactics of the Frenchman, insinuating that it would be a risk to play openly against the Premier League leaders.
“When you want to play football, you have to accept risk,” Wenger replied.
“If you want to play football when you walk on the pitch, you have to accept the gamble and the risk as part of the game. After that, you have to rate the risk, whether it is a bigger risk to defend or attack. If a team is only there to attack, it is a bigger risk to defend.
“You can win a game with any style. That is what makes football interesting. As long as you are strong in what you do.”
Should Arsenal adopt a more defensive system for the tough trip to City? Is Wenger bluffing?
Pat J
Previously Arsenal dominated Manchester City’s midfield in the Etihad stadium because Cazorla was everywhere in that game. Manchester City was managed by Pellegrini and now Arsenal do not have mobile, skillful and hardworking midfielder that can dictate the tempo like Cazorla.
I don’t think Wenger would have the guts to play all-out like when Arsenal faced Everton. But let’s hope that he has gotten some inspirations from the last few matches.
If he can bring the fearless mentality back into the team, it would be a very entertaining match. I wish to see the the flowing and attacking football again from them, the one that made me like Arsenal in the first place, I don’t care about the result.
They showed a comparison between the current Man City team and the Arsenal Invincibles on TV the other day…
At this stage of the season Man City have won more games, conceded fewer goals, and scored nearly twice as many goals as Arsenal did during our best ever season under Wenger.
I think taking a point from this game would be an excellent result, because Man City are a far better team than us at the moment. Far, far, far better.
I bet you that City of the immediate past two seasons (Pelegrini and Guardiola) also had better stats at this stage of the season than Arsenal’s invincibles. We all know what happened in both seasons. There’s nothing that says this City team (yes they are so good) cannot be beaten, and soundly.
TBH if mertsacker is starting, with Xhaka in front of him, we might as well just go all and attack lol.
I just hope cech can step up and make some great saves this weekend.
Let’s go arsenal!
I think there needs to be a balance between attack and defense. There is no point attacking like crazy in the first ten minutes and leave so many holes in our midfield and defense. I think we need to be solid in the first ten minutes and stay compact. Then we can grow in the game and try to create chances. I think we also need a extra midfielder in there. Maybe ramsey can play further forward and bring in elneny or coquelan. If we can control the midfield that will force them to play outwide, which the actually do all the time. Just think of all the tap-ins Sterling has had this season from balls coming out wide from de bruyne and sane so I think bellerin and kolasinac need to defend first and attack later. I have to give my honest prediction. City is honestly one of the best if nit the best team right now in Europe so I can’t see us winning. But having said that I know Arsenal are capable of a great performance, i.e. the performance against chelsea in the fa cup final or the 3-0 win vs man utd at home in the 2015/16 season or the 2-0 win vs bayern. However as we know those performances happen once a season. Hopefully on sunday will be that time. But honestly i can see a 4-2 win to man city.
Once a season you say? Last season we handed Chelsea a comprehensive hiding in the league, beat City in the FA Cup semi final and defeated Chelsea (again Soundly) in the FA Cup final to mention a few. Arsenal does have a lot of classic performances every season but consistency has led to dropping of points that have cost us the league title.