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Confirmed Arsenal team to face Man City at the Etihad – Ben White on the bench

Well, it is going to be another tricky Arsenal line-up prediction today as Arteta still has Martin Odegaard, Mikel Merino, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Kieran Tierney and Oleksandr Zinchenko all out of contention, but in reality our captain is the only one that was certain to start if fit.

At least we have Declan Rice back after suspension, and Jesus has now got a game under his belt and is an option.

I can safely say that Raya, White, Gabriel, Saliba and Timber will be making up our rock solid back line, with Rice and Partey being joined by Havertz in midfield, and up front I can see there being Saka, Jesus and Trossard, with Martinelli and Sterling on the bench when needed….

So, let’s see if Mikel Arteta is thnking the same as I am (lol). Here is his chosen line-up….

I was not far out with my prediction yet again!

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103 Comments

    1. The only thing that’s working in the team (Keeper also part of the defense)

      The midfield and attack are where tweaking is needed

      I hope we find a way

      1. Thank You Sir

        So you think the last 2 seasons where he played every match there was never a match that he wasn’t fully fit

        It’s not really that – wherever you saw that – they’re just selling that to us

        I’m certain Bukayo Saka is not fully fit

  6. I hope Timber will invert instead of Calafiori, because of Timber’s close control

    A draw would be a very good result, since Jesus, Odegaard and Merino are still unfit

    1. I think Man City will exploit Calafiori if he goes too much on his adventures

      From what I’ve seen, he loves roaming around – this is not the match for that

    2. @Gai this line up is a very good one imo with Matinelli my only doubt because of his form lately but I guess Arteta needs his defensive abilities.
      Out last game against Everton last season Timber replaced white to a very good effect. And if you watch Euro Italy matches Calafiori is good with the ball at his feet but I would prefer Timber to invert
      The defence lineup has been my dream defence. Rodri and KDB absence a big minus for City. A win or draw for Arsenal

      2. I just remembered about Calafiori’s own goal when he played against Spain in Euro and he almost made another one in the game

        Rodri is in Man City’s starting lineup, but luckily De Bruyne is unfit

  7. Guardiola not scared of us this time

    He’s confident this time around

    He most times parks the midfield against us – doesn’t start a Winger

    But from his line-up today – what i see is:

    This time he starts his Wingers, he believes we can’t really play creatively at the moment and might not really be able to craft moments that can hurt them (which may be a true observation)
    So he is coming out boldly to play his normal game against us

    1. Partey is suspect ….AGAIN. He has been terrible since the start of season. He should not play another game for us again

  9. Wasn’t expecting White to be on the bench. Let’s see what Calafiori is made of

    I have to be honest that one of our subs in a new one to me but let’s see!

  10. I hope we have someone who can open spaces with precise passes, and be creative with the ball, we will miss odegard in this game. I pray we get an ugly win with a long goal. I don’t see much goals in this game

      1. Our defence will keep them at bay, what we miss is creativity going forward, trosad has not been playing that role well

        1. I think he’s actually been trying

          To me, Arteta wanting him to be switching Striking positions with Hazard is also limiting him

          He’s shown that he can throw and look for incisive passes a couple of times

          Kai only passes to the next man when he drops to the midfield

          Kai become enthusiastic when he’s back in the Striking positions

          So to me, they shouldn’t be switching, Kai seem to enjoy it upfront & Trossard seem to want to show that he can find a pass also – let them stick to those positions rather than alternating

  11. Arteta is going for the win.
    Was thinking he would play safe and park the midfield with Rice, Partey and Jorjihno.
    That’s bold
    Come on, let’s go!

    1. I had commented that I hoped we would play to win.

      We have the best defense in Europe, Rice is a top class midfielder, and our attack isn’t sharp as normal, but still a threat.

      We have all the ingredients to go at City, and I loved watching us take it to them toe to toe.

      Watching us grow into the game, their confidence growing, and going directly at City was wonderful.

  12. Pep didn’t overload his attacking area as he has been doing lately. That’s respect to Arteta and his boys.
    COYG

  13. Both are going for the win it seems with the formations chosen. We need a clean match with zero mistakes, the refs will be looking for that fat bonus from the masters.

  17. Partey is suspect ….AGAIN. He has been terrible since the start of season. He should not play another game for us again

    1. Why does everybody just latch on to Partey when he’s not done anything wrong

      That goal came about by Calafiori been to hasty with his marking on the Man City Winger

      why not mention that

  22. 4-4-2 is getting us kinda screwed in midfield i feel. Trossard and havertz do not seem to be in sync at all

  24. I always prefer Man City go to Doku side

    Cos Saka & Partey makes it hard to penetrate that side helping Timber

    But I’m always scared when they come to the left, though Martinelli covers well – Rice doesn’t get close enough with them to just shut that side off

    You guys won’t see that to mention

    There are still plenty things Partey does better than Rice

    1. Michael Oliver knew exactly what he was doing.
      Why wasn’t pep shown a red for kicking his chair
      And why wasn’t 6 man city players booked for surrounding the ref after our 1st goal.
      Watching it on sky and the commentary team are so bias in what they say. Can’t really be bothered in the Premier league anymore as it is so dishonest and we won’t be surprised wen city score in 2nd half. Also so much time added on or am I being a little suspicious 🤔

    1. On sky they’re saying it was for kicking the ball away, which doesn’t make sense this time either – I don’t think the commentators know what the yellow was actually for, but neither option is fair

  35. That was ridiculous he was half way through kicking when the whistle went. This is a ridiculous rule, not only is it unfair, but how is it Arsenal are always done for it?

  36. Yellow card for that. Lmao. Doku kicked the ball away quite a while after the whistle but nothing. Joke league

  37. This is getting ridiculous. And I’m sure some Arsenal fans in Man City shirts will arrive and teach us the rules. Just wait.

    1. He just couldn’t let it happen. Just couldn’t. He even allowed the game to drag one and half min past the added 6 mins, and he took matters in his hand.

  41. Arteta shouldn’t start shoveling things like he did against Brighton

    We were largely defending before
    Let’s just continue that

    They’ll have more mental believe and try to choke us in but all we need was the spaces in at their back which Martinelli has been exploiting well

    So Arteta please don’t change anything

    1. With 1 man down, I just think he will change. You can’t keep up that intensity going forward anymore.

      He will park the Boeing now.

    1. In commentary, they’d said it was for reckless play when he hit into the city player – my impression was that they’d got that from the referees team, but I guess that could be wrong and maybe they didn’t know. I’m going to have to watch it again

        1. 🙄 I think that’s still very harsh but I’ll have to rewatch it. Rice, I thought, knew exactly what he was doing and got caught but it looked like trossard genuinely hadn’t stopped playing, in which case I think the ref should have given benefit of the doubt.

  43. I’m glad this happened before half time and not in the 30-40 mins. At least Arteta can sort out the players in half time.

  44. When we say Epl Referees are corrupt we are labeled. Why would you give a second yellow for such ridiculous offence in such an intense match.
    I just remembered the Van persie Red against Barcelona. Football is dead.

    1. Don’t mention it brother. It still pains me to this day. The intent was removing our most dangerous player from the game.

      They won everything at that time still they were a team full of cheaters and whiners.

  45. No surprise on Trossard’s foul; absolutely stupid by him. Crashing into the guy’s back and not making a play for the ball.

    I’m glad we are playing and trading punches with City, it’s time we confront them head on.

  46. Oliver has just secured his bonus for his masters for his disgusting cheating. Remember this is the same ref that wouldn’t give kovacic a 2nd yellow because he didn’t want to negatively affect the game.

    Trossard has halfway through kicking the ball when he blew the whistle and both Doku and haaland didn’t get booked for time wasting earlier.

  48. We won’t win this

    Removing an attacking playing for Ben White

    Everybody was defending in the first place – this just limits our possibility of going forward and we’ll defend throughout this second half

    Which is too hard to do against City fir 45 mins

  49. Won’t our players ever learn? Keep making the same mistakes and being their own enemies and costly the team valuable points
    Rice did it against Brighton; Saliva did against Spurs; and now….

  50. No discipline at all from our players, it was a silly mistake from Trossard no matter how we complain, didnt he learn from the Rice incident? Does Arteta talk to them about these silly challanges which cost us every time!

  53. The substitution does not make sense

    We’ll be passenger throughout this second half

    Saka was largely a side back in the first half – it was him Doku faced most of the time

    Bringing in a defender only likits the possibility of we creating something

    We were defending but we could still hurt them
    Now we’ll be defending but cannot hurt them – we’ll absolutely play nothing

    1. We can’t

      Cos he’s structure us to only defend now

      Only Martinelli provides width, it will be hard to find him out without being dispossessed of the ball so we’ll just keep booting it out

      With width on both sides every player knows they can either go leftwards or rightwards

  55. Since we joined other elite clubs in trying to buy trophies, it’s about time we join them in buying referees too.

    They are going to punish us until we get the message.

  58. Listening on Arsenal.com. Since 2nd half

    Still in there after 70 plus minutes Fingers crossed that we hang in there. It’s massive

  59. Wow

    We messed up that quick corner of theirs and they punished instantly

    Well Done to the Boys

    This was great performance

    1. I was enjoying the midfield that was preventing an outside shot

      It felt like we were the ones toying with them – immediately the pass from the wing two the midfield someone is always rushing at their player collecting the ball to make sure he just passes back

      And whoever he passes to another person is running at him to make sure he passes away

      Our SB were chasing them to the middle – middle were chasing them away also

      There was just no way for them

      1. I would love to hear Rodri talk about mentality now when his team, the champions, celebrated like they won the league for a draw at their home.

  61. One away point at City with all these injuries and one man short is a great performance. Can’t ask for more.. the ref ruined this for everyone.

  62. We should’ve won that game, and if Doku wasn’t sent off, Trossard shouldn’t have been. No apologists, we have two tier refereeing now, seems this country is run by billionaires now, what’s the chance of them winning their court case?

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