Arsenal have a great chance to put some space between ourselves and our main rivals for the title on Monday night. Man City looked awesome at the beginning of the season, but they have dropped back a little lately and haven’t won away for a couple of months.
We may be complaining that we have had too many injury problems, but Man City have had more than their fair share as well. Some of them are starting to return now but the game at the Emirates will be too early for most of them, including the influential Vincent Kompany. The Man City boss Manuel Pellegrini said: “Pablo Zabaleta continues without working – I hope next week he’ll start again.
“Vincent Kompany, Fernando and Nasri are also out.
“Vincent is improving. I hope next week he’ll start working with the squad.”
So that is the good news for the Gunners, but the bad news is that City’s talismanic striker Kun Aguero has recovered from his injury layoff and will be returning on Monday. “Kun is working with the squad without problems. We’ll assess him to see if he’s 100% to start the game but I think he’ll be in the squad on Monday.”
As he has been out for a while it is unlikely that Aguero will play the whole 90 minutes, but an time his in on the pitch e will be dangerous even if he s not fully fit.
Pellegrini was also keen to point out that this game is far from being a title decider. He added: “It’s not a decisive game as after this we have to play 21 games more. It’s important to try to be the best team from the first round, to play against a team with one point more. It’s a game of six points, to win three and to take three off a rival.
“We must consider Leicester – they are still top of the table. United are just a few points behind us. Tottenham can be involved, so can Liverpool and Crystal Palace. It’s impossible just to think there are two teams involved in the title.
“We have to play five of the next six away. It’s a good target to return to clean sheets and to advance in positions. Playing away is always a bit more difficult.”
With City’s rubbish away record recently, a win for Arsenal could demoralise the Citizens for their following games as well, hopefully giving us further chances to increase our lead over them.
Fingers crossed this could be a great weekend for our title aspirations….
Onwards and Upwards!