Confirmed Teams for Arsenal’s trip to Man City this afternoon

The teams are out for today’s trip to the Etihad, where both Arsenal and Manchester City will be desperate for the win.

The Gunners arrive here with zero points from their opening two matches with Chelsea and Brentford, while the Citizens will be weary of their shaky start to the season, whilst Chelsea and Man United have shown strong intent on mounting a serious challenge for this season’s Premier League title already.

Both sides will definitely be feeling the heat as they head into today’s matchup, and both camps insist that they are targeting the win, although the bookmakers make a home win the strong odds-on favourite result.

Mikel Arteta has had a number of boosts to his playing squad this week, but we remain with four key players, which is why we do not have our best possible eleven named below.

I’m not entirely sure on the formation here, but it looks like a 3-4-3 with Tierney, Cedric, Xhaka and ESR in the four, which will make for an intriguing watch.

Is this the best team possible from those available? Does this line-up have what it takes to chase a win today?

Patrick

Tags Man City Man City v Arsenal

398 Comments

    1. Can’t even watch Sue! Prepping a 1500 worder report, lol. I Will see if I can sneak in some minutes for the second half to get points for my rant on the match article😂😂

    2. Xvideos for me

      We are going to lose Tierney and that will be our last decent defender.

      How can any team line up with
      2 right backs, 1 centre back and 2 left backs, Cedric, chambers, holding Kolasinac and Tierney as a back 5. 1 midfielder who then as usual shows why he is not worth 10m let alone 34m and 4 up front who are not going to see the ball. The manager is clueless and those above him are worse, we have spent £130m £200m if you include Pepe and how many are on the pitch?

      I really don’t know how Arteta walks in to that dressing room oh wait now he takes off Saka for Elneny

    3. You can’t make this up
      From Chambers school boy defending; to Holding’ s lack of confidence;
      To xhaha’ s naive tackle resulting in a needless redcard; to arteta’s incompetence in not playing a proper holding midfielder;
      To Arsenal’s lethargic attacking third leaving auba so isolated… Mehhhnñ
      Arsenal are club full of clowns from top to bottom. We are already 5 goals down with 5 minutes to play. City are not showing mercy because we chose to show them too much respect. Utter shambles

  1. Trust the process. Give Xhaka a new deal. Mikel Arteta for you people. And Edu as well. Let’s not forget him for 1 second.

    1. Giving Xhaka a new contract was the most ridiculous decision ever. When will Xhaka ever learn? I don’t blame him.

      MA should go!

      1. It should not be a surprise Granit saw red. Once he is more or less the only cover in front of defence as midfielder. That is wicked load of duty, to stop attacks, while the front guys could hardly win the ball back to stop City, a team that will dominate possession.

    2. Konstantin, Granit Xhaka is the gift that keeps on giving, just for the opposition not Arsenal FC. And Mikel Arteta talked him into staying, gave him a new contract and decided Yves Bissouma, who wants to come to Arsenal wasn’t the player at Brighton & Hove Albion to pay £40million for!

  2. During half time let Arteta beg before Pep to to avoid more humiliation. That is the only escape route today…

  3. I’ve had just about enough of these BLEEP hunch of weak minded BLEEP idiots such low quality and idiocy!!

    1. When idiots on this site said we couldn’t do better than arteta over the summer I said nunes was obviously better … predictable uninformed reaction

        1. But Arteta feels he doesn’t deserve even a single minute of football. He believes Mari is a better player

          1. Maybe Saliba is arrogant, but the trainers should’ve been able to change his attitude and work ethic

          1. I don’t even get angry anymore mate, I’ve just become disillusioned with it all… The warning signs were there when we fielded a strong squad against Hibs and got beat 🧐

  4. 130 mil spent… might as well dumped it in a bin and set fire to it..team looks far worse than last season 😶

  5. Thanks I didn’t bother to watch even though I could. I feel sad for my dad watching😢. Focusing on my test than watching depressing Arsenal.

  6. Arteta’s tactics are genuinely flawed. There’s never balance in the team. That’s why the players are always overwhelmed by the opponent teams, get frustrated and we get a lot of bookings and red cards. He doesn’t played to his players strengths. Recruitment has been awful. When he’s done in Arsenal and I’d guess that will be very soon he’ll make a great pundit analysing tactics. I don’t think he’ll ever be a manager for a good team. I can’t watch Arsenal football matches anymore, they’re becoming very predictable. Humiliation, bullying and nothing more.

  7. Where are the Arteta fans? Come out from your basement and make a case for your “great” “manager”!

  8. No shot on target for the entire first half,arteta u have turned our football club into a night club.since 2016/17 season, no player has been sent off in epl matches than xhaka, luiz and fenadinho

  9. My post from the previous article>


    Good luck young lambs (and Xhaka)..
    Let’s hope it’s not to a slaughter but the sign of a new spring..

    Man City will have too much for us I fear (individual quality and in team, experience and drive)..but here’s hoping we can some how pull off a win or even a draw by hook or by crook!

    Oh Xhaka, oh Arsenal, oh dear;(

  10. Most naive tactics I have seen. F, this is a professional team earning millions of £’s a year. Wrong owner, wrong manager, wrong technical director, wrong board. The players are just wrongly coached. It’s an ownership/coaching failure. We need a new manager before we get into a relegation fight.

  11. The curse of the current Arsenal even Ben White joins and then no longer gets picked for England it’s like everyone knows once an Arsenal player you’ll level will soon drop!

    I want to see someone on thw pitch shouting and getting angry!

  12. In all honesty, I’m still trying to figure out 3 things: (1)Arsenal spent the most in the Prem on transfers, and the starting lineup includes MO#8 as the only starter from the transfers? Future in mind or poor recruiting strategy? (2)How are these names in a starting lineup after last year’s 8th place finish – Kolasinac, Cedric, Xhaka…and while I like them, I also have to add Chambers, Holding and Leno to the list. This would have been a 2nd string team LAST year. (3)How did ESR’s keeper effedup clearance not go in the net? Maybe Arsenal really are jinxed. And a bonus 4th…Did anybody else feel Xhaka was going to flip off the crowd as he was walking off???

  13. Even the Kroenke family should be ashamed now for identified the name of their family with this club as owner. Sell this team or sack every sackable person today.

  14. I was hoping no tactical changes need to be made during the game……but worse is player sent off……..what was he thinking…..two footed challenge off the ground is a no no………

    1. Indeed, if I was the owner I would have heads rolling tonight. He gave them 130 mil, and what happened. Same old same old

  15. I know it’s idiotic, but I still have hope for a better second half. Maybe we might score a goal too! Helps with my prediction too, lol… On a serious note, we can all bash the managers and players after the match but let’s support now, pretty please!

    1. What difference does our support make at this point Sid?

      Will it be read by Arteta and suddenly the positive reinforcement will spur him into making a strategic master plan , in motivating his players, in our recruitment strategy or making our owner be in the game to win things?

      No it won’t..

      The team are a shambles, and it’s their fault, Artetas Fault , Edu’s Fault and Kroenkes fault.

      We are bringing on Elneny…wow talk about an uninspiring damage limitation ploy.

      Ian Wright is right; a disaster show.

  16. 1st half review
    Clearly Mari is not seen as reliable if Kosalinac is playing in front of him, a player apparently half out of the door.

    Chambers and Cedric are a far cry from what we need but it’s what we have. Chambers thought a clearance of chipping the ball towards Saka or Odegaard is ok but this isnt how we will build attacks.
    No confidence style football. I appreciate we are playing Man City but it comes back to leadership. You lead regardless if you are playing division or premier standard…

    So suddenly our defence has a small pool.to pick from. Is Holding White Gabriel our future?

    Ref Watch
    It’s too easy to give city free kicks and not let arsenal get these. It was a reoccurring theme. Jesus for a fake hand to face but no free kick for ESR trip…
    It was why it was easy to give Xhaka a red card. He initially had a yellow card until the city players convinced him otherwise.

    Poor Ref but equally poor from Arsenal. Lacking desire to get a result. Even if this means to dig in and be tight and defend for 48mins
    Thays not tactics for me, its passion.

    At the moment our young talent havent got to the level of ownership of the shirt.

  17. Last last xhaka will fire arteta lol. You can’t have Chambers and xhaka in a team and call it a strong line up.

    When I said arteta is a mere apprentice who doesn’t deserve to coach a club like arsenal, John fox got angry and was calling names..

    Any coach that gives xhaka, Chambers and leno regular playing time can never succeed here. That guys are squard players at best.

    Arteta said he rate Martins Ordegaard, thesame player we all knew wasn’t close to a squard player during his loan spell at the club.

    I pity some of you that thinks arteta knows better simply because he is the team coach, dude is only an apprentice. He has nothing to offer.

    If you think we will start seeing results going forward because we have some couple of smaller teams to play in the coming weeks, be ready for a bigger shock!
    The worst is yet to come with arteta – the apprentice in charge.

    Enjoys the ride guys, like I said before the season commenced, it’s gonna be a very looooong and boring ride.

  18. Wenger was walloped 8 2 but still manage to be in the top 4, let’s give Arteta till May 😂 lol 🤣🤣

  19. Even other clubs fans are pitying Arsenal. Arteta through his pride and ego drove away good players we have and gave contract to garbage in the team. The likes of Torrera, Guedozy, Saliba.

      1. Exactly.. reason why they all say arteta is good blah blah…so that he wouldn’t be sacked…and we can continue to be a joke topic for pundits….

    1. I’ve specifically mentioned those three names before and questioned why they were chased away by Arteta. Some people got angry. I’ll say it again as I did before. Arteta is very arrogant. His ego is bigger that the entire world put together. He will rather give contracts to sh*t players like Cedric, Willian and xhaka just to show he’s the boss. Shame on our club

  20. Take smith Rowe off please. Kid tried to dribble but can’t, tried to hold up the ball but can’t.

  21. It’s hard to believe a lot of supporters didn’t want Tuchel or NES and thought Xhaka was better than Ruben Neves but I suppose they believe Arteta will eventually become the next Pep so all is good 😆

  22. By the way … the croydon de bruyne is not good enough to be our starting creative outlet … have to laugh and sigh at the idiots who suggested Bernardo Silva was no better .. Arsenal fans reaping what they sow … back the project support the manager get behind the lads … ridiculous

    1. not one of our young players will get any better under Arteta. How can they when we cannot even reach the opposition box aymore?

  23. Mikel & Edu;

    You both have had time, money and fans patience but enough is enough.

    Your time is up, you have both blown all our budget to somehow make us alot worse than last season & we are on 2 8th place finishes in a row maybe even lower this season. Fans have had enough…

    While we are at it I am praying to God every night we get a proper owner who is involved and cares.

  24. As long as we have xhaka playing for arsenal we weak was never good enuf for and arsenal team never same as arteta weak as player and manager. We should prepare for championship guys this team is weak

  25. I wouldn’t mind Wenger back just to get us into 4th place…….)…….support the manager for the love of the club…..for the love of the club arsenal need a better manager……….!

  26. Forget the manager. But these guys are paid half a million to a million pounds to stroll around like this. Remember that you don’t really get money for working but how good you’re at scamming others.

  27. I don’t know much about football so please have been meaning to ask, what is Arteta ball, is it counter attacking, possession based football or tiki taka.

  28. This is sickening to watch… I want Arteta out but I never want my team to be humiliated this bad 😑

  29. Supporting arsenal is like stabbing our own heart with a dagger over and over again. It hurts. It really hurts.

  30. Funny thing is … truthfully anyone who watched the first 10mins against the westbrom kids…would see that if they had better quality upfront..they would have scored one or two goals….

    I won’t complain again..he will be sacked soon but like I always say timing might be an issue come end of season….
    If he is sacked after 3losses….we cud still sneak into the Europe places but losing 5-7 matches before December wud be really significant….

    I can’t imagine wasting a whole season after 3 games and fighting for relegation…

    Cuz whether we like it or not there are no easy matches in the EPL again…..the next two matches against supposedly small teams would shock us especially those who feels our season would kickoff after this shameful city match…..

    We currently play league one side and that’s a fact

  31. Hard to imagine the coach thinks Saliba, Torreira, Willock, Lokonga, Maitland-Niles and Mavropanos are not good enough to play ahead of some of the players he is picking? Arteta is our downfall.

    1. to be blatantly honest. i dont see a single player listed doing much better than what we are seeing today. And, it’s a blessing that Saliba is not being ruined by Arteta right now. What does Mikel know about nurturing a young, talented CB? What does he know about setting up a good defense?

  32. Arteta and Edu out to scrap every iota of dignity that this once great club had..
    The spuds with a new manager owner this man city side and collected all 3 points..
    First half of football and we 3goals and a man down…
    Arteta out now!!

  33. Regardless of how we play and if we win we’ve just become the club no one who’s anything about football would want to join, laughing stock, cannon fodder, career ending club!!
    And how we kept Xhaka based on one performance against France in the Euros is a head scratcher for me, got to wonder about Edu as well
    Beautiful sterling and Mahrez in now 🙁
    We need to get the Bellerin RB situation sorted before the window closes.

  34. Arteta spent £50 mill on BW when he had William Saliba, who has been top for Marseilles. We could have had Bissouma and Aouar. Something is rank dank. Nil points, like we are in the Eurovision with the worst song ever and strange transfer goings on.

    1. Hi Sean. I once did that BISSOUMA +TORRERA combination is better than XHAKA +ELNENY

      Aouar is a must buy imo. But Arteta knows best.

  35. TMJW you are hiding nowadays. I would like to see you commenting on exactly what’s going wrong, after all your propaganda last season.

    1. Arteta has a better record against Top 6 sides HH. The ‘numerous’ humiliations under Wenger were worse which is a fact! Arteta is trying to get the club back to track etc, the trademarked response from our dear friend, lol.
      That said, let’s hope we get one in for a slightly better goal difference, eh?

      1. Not true Sid, you can not compare them on this front as Wenger was incharge for 20 odd years and Areta for almost 2 years. The way things are going if Arteta survives for 20 odd years then his record will be 2-3 times worse or even more then what Wenger had. Plus you for get the transfer budget that Wenger had and the tranfer budget Arteta has had.

        1. Logic, I was just saying the things our dear friend TMJW would say. For me I know who is an Arsenal Icon and who is proving to be a false positive, lol.

    1. And 0 shot on target. Arteta is breaking records here!! #Trusttheprocess

      Honestly we should make #trusttheprocess a trending sarcasm.

    1. With the same crop of players, we can do better than this.
      Arteta to me is not as bad as it seems, but there is more to this. We did not win FA Cup last year by chance, we beat some of the best around. We played with purpose and to players strengths. What is happening now, I just can’t understand anymore. These players are not this bad I am sure.

  36. And Kane staying at spurs MU getting Ronaldo its all upbeat and happy news for the others what’s going on!
    I really think we need a defensive coach send Keown to the club to slap some players around I reckon.

  37. Cedric, Chambers, Kolasinac, Elneny, AMN all on the pitch right now together. All players who shouldnt even still be at the club. Not to mention Holding, Leno, Lacazette who arguably aren’t better than 2nd string players. I realize there are injuries and COVID, but the lineup picked today surpasses the level of pathetic. Not a single academy player can make the bench for this game either? Is Mikel telling me Elneny is really this valuable to the team and no youngster has a chance of making him redundant?

  38. I miss Wenger
    Emery was much better than this Joker
    Now next 2 weeks Articles will flood on blog how Arteta is right man Carry forward Arsenal and all the Aretata supporters will start flooding their comments

  39. Kolasinac just have Holding a High Five like we winning 1 zero and defending a last minute attack…
    Half of the team don’t deserve to be at this club..
    Lol

  40. Oh well, free hit gone. With or without Arteta the young core we’re building will serve us well down the line. One positive is Ode looked ok deeper so could take Xhaka’s spot and then maybe we add Aouar to the squad. Either way when we actually start with:

    Auba/2 of the 4 wide players
    ESR/Ode/Partey
    Tierney/Gabriel/White/New RB (fingers crossed)
    Ramsdale

    We’ll look a lot better.

    1. Angus, I was waiting for your 2nd half of last season stat …and how odegaard made us the second best team ….and how arteta would do magic with him

      1. Further my banging about the 2nd best form was (and ive said it repeatedly) not to say we’re the 2nd best team but to say it was a clear sign of progress that everyone was denying existed.

  41. I remember Barselona being 18th at some point early in 21 century, and their supporters waving white handkerchiefs after last game they lost at home. They sacked Van Gaal, hired Miroslav Antic and finished 6th that year. So… we can hope, I hope

  42. For me, I’ve no issue with Arteta. He was never up to it.

    To remember Xhaka has just been handed a new five years deal is the agony. We’ll be seeing more of this, with him in the squad.
    It is sad.

    1. But you should be moral with your values
      You should leave asap when you understand this is big and one can’t handle

  43. Arteta is facing disciplinary actions from his coach,just a reminder one shot off target,no shot on target,no corner,5 nil now

    1. We had multiple chances before going down to 10. We tackled their GK twice 1st 30 mins (followed by Keown claiming we’re not pressurising the widely praised ball playing keeper enough lol how do they get paid for that?) How ESR’s tackle didn’t go in is a mystery perfect backspin to keep it out. The 1st 2 goals were awful (just like chelsea but just like chelsea our 1st choice LCB and RCB were out so) but City didn’t dominate until Xhaka went off (Their possession was forced into their own half, they had what 3 chances 2 goals, we had 3 too in that time) then it was all she wrote after the card.

      City squad is miles clear always likely winners but we didn’t look that bad (despite the commentary) until Xhaka went off just conceded two sloppy goals. Talk of disarray/1st vs bottom is absolute agenda narrative driven nonsense without the Xhaka card which was harsh even if letter of the law it ends 3-0, 2-1 worst. Doesn’t mean Arteta will come good but the commentary is an unfair assessment but come to expect that after Brentford scored a clear obvious error goal and had their goal peppered by us and it was apparently a dominant performance by them.

      1. In that 1st 30 mins we had two peno shouts that would of been soft Tierney/Saka but were both chances outside that. Tackled the GK twice that should of resulted in something and had multiple other attacks like when Ode didnt see Saka early enough.

  44. This game is not critical to MA’s fate but the next few matches against so called “low” opponents will be decisive for him. Our forwards getting worse under MA’s years.

    The next few matches will see whether we will be fighting delegation if we can’t win home and away against “lower” teams.

    1. Nothing is critical for MA’s fate because he has no control over global warming, it’s all Wenger’s fault that we had no tree planted in 20 odd years. It takes time to grow a jungle and we are sure under Arteta we will one day. But for now club will be effected by global warming and these performance will happen every now and then. Be patient and trust the process. Completely irrelevant and no logic right? These are sort of comments given by pro Arteta fans day in day out.

    2. He was always going to be judged on the next 8 games. That goes bad he’s in trouble, that goes well and it’s United away followed by Everton away and then a kind December. Next 8 games.

      We’ll see what we look like after the needed international break against Norwich.

  45. You can’t make this up
    From Chambers school boy defending; to Holding’ s lack of confidence;
    To xhaha’ s naive tackle resulting in a needless redcard; to arteta’s incompetence in not playing a proper holding midfielder;
    To Arsenal’s lethargic attacking third leaving auba so isolated… Mehhhnñ
    Arsenal are club full of clowns from top to bottom. We are already 5 goals down with 5 minutes to play. City are not showing mercy because we chose to show them too much respect. Utter shambles

  46. Next 4 are Norwich, Burnley, Brighton and Tottenham
    No chance we are getting result against Tottenham…
    So only 3 winnable games

  47. Chelsea defeated Man city in the last 3 meetings, United have been having the upper hand in recent seasons, Tottenham went to Etihad and won 2 weeks ago….

    Off all those oppositions Tottenham possess the least star studded squad… WTF???? It’s all down to the manager so glaring to a 2 yr old.
    130+m spent and there’s absolutely no visible changes nor improvement????

    Nevermind absent players, forget injuries this is pure agony not like you’ll see a super and aggravated response against Norwich…

    So Embarrassing WTH…???

  48. If Arteta is not sacked by tomeorow morning, this club does not deserve any success at all! Arteta OUT!!!

    1. No he won’t be. If he is then there will be a lot of back clash with still a good amount of Arsenal fans thinking Arteta is the right guy. So one way or another we are the Leeds United of past, get ready for relegation.

  49. I do appreciate the announcers trying to help Arsenal fans feel better though. Comparing our current form to the way Man City opened the league last year, and then won it all. Yeah…exactly the same…

  50. I don’t think Leno is a bad GK as people say. If not bcos of him, we would be trailing by 10 goals. No keeper will survive this humiliation…..not even 2 keepers.

  51. 83rd minute, Manchester City 5 Arsenal 0; City 603 passes, Arsenal 105 passes.
    Pep Guardiola is looking after Mikel Arteta in the second half.
    Did Arsenal under Emery ever lose like this?

    1. Manchester City 24 shots on goal, Arsenal 1.
      It’s going to be a long hard season.
      At least Glasgow Rangers vs Glasgow Celtic should be competitive.

  52. Surprise, surprise that Aubameyang can’t even look the fans in the eyes after this loss and goes straight to the dressing room. CLUB CAPTAIN??!?!?! Total joke.

    1. Arteta has not left him in a position to look at fans. The guys you used to be the darling of fans, always smiling and banging goals against any opponent …now just walks straight down the tunnel to avoid fans becaus he knows what shit show this team is putting out there under the magnificent kingship of Arteta.

  53. What a lot of fans dont realise we are loosing fans quickly because neither are producing results and nor the attractive football that was associated with us. Now you can call them plastic fans and say we are better without them but that’s not true a large part of our revenue comes from fans as they decrease the club will shrink so will the TV deals and sponsorship deals along with merchandise. So fans saying we don’t need such fans can enjoy the club with few thousand supporters when we are playing in 2nd tier. How can club board not see the bigger picture and what has been happening to us in this prospective. We are loosing massive ground in finencial list of clubs now 5-6 English clubs have become bigger then us in terms of revenue.

    1. Logic, at 69yo having followed Arsenal since age 10, I have seen Arsenal have poor seasons before. It is not all about winning every match, but following a football club where the players play with personal and professional pride, put in for themselves, their team mates, the coach and the Club and show commitment. If they are not good enough in the end after giving their best, that’s all a good supporter can expect. Through thick and thin, good times and bad, but the players have to earn their wages.

    2. Good. I assume we’re losing most of the ones that were terrible when we were still in top 4. No big loss and they’ll come straight back as this team gets older.

  54. It is now official.
    We are battling relegation.
    The focus now is to remain in the top flight.
    .

  55. Credit to the supporters who stayed and supported. It was a spirited effort against the best team in the league. We weren’t, we ain’t good enough and so we need to remain together and keep building.

    I keep hearing our signings are poor and dont give anything to now but we propebly have a player who will become one of the top 5 best players in the league in the coming seasons in Saka. So putting together a group of players around him of the same generation only makes sense.

    But for the immediate we need to get results

  56. Can’t believe I’m here hoping we lose the next 3 matches so Arteta can be gone.
    But who then comes in?

  57. Pep will make an announcement that Arteta, his mate, is a great manager. I’m sure he is still getting a salary from Man City.

    1. Of course he will Pep was not happy until Xhaka got sent off, shouting all sorts. City Gk got tackled twice (unheard of), they kept passing the ball out for throws in their own half, standing still with the ball because the passing lanes were shut off, going long because the passing lanes were shut off etc. We gifted them two stupid goals that was it and they should of gifted us 2 from the GK tackles alone. The peno shouts for Tierney/Saka were good chances outside of them both going down and the Tierney gets given all day long against us with VAR saying it’s not a clear and obvious error (soft but Tierney doesn’t dive, he knocked him off balance.) City created what 1 chance outside their goal before the card. We were more threatening going forward, easy to miss with the commentary but watch until the card on mute again, see what you see and get back to me.

  58. ‘Arsenal would do phenomenally to finish top eight’_BBC…….played 3…0 for…9 against………!

  59. When we put 6 past Norwich I hope there is a similarly over the top reaction, just saying. 😉 Honestly I’m not invested, think the reactions are over the top to Arteta but he has to get results next 8. He is here now so whatever if he goes after that and someone does better after happy days. I like what we’re doing with the squad overall in our current position so things are only going to get better either way imo.

  60. For my advise, I will say let all arsenal fans and supporter got to stadium at Emirates to carry out peaceful protest against this board and ateta &edu that want to take arsenal to championship level after this years gone by. This is what the kroenkes understand.

    1. If results don’t come he gets sacked. My advice support the club. Never liked the Wenger out nonsense but at least it had a semblance of logic due to his entrenched status at the club. Arteta doesn’t have that history. Anyone suggesting this is misguided at best and at worst someone actively trying to hurt to the club (either way it hurts the club.)

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