Arsenal vs Man City Premier League preview: How to watch, lineups, Arteta, Covid & prediction

Arsenal return to Premier League action after a six-day absence as they host reigning champions Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium on New Years’ Day. Here is the match preview.

Not only are Arsenal playing at 12:30PM on January 1, they’re taking on the side who whip them side to side every season. That’s cruel. Whatever your head may be feeling like in the morning, it might be worth watching with one eye closed.

This fixture would have been the third one inside a week were it not for the Wolves match being postponed. Covid cases within the visitors’ squad coupled with injuries meant Bruno Lage couldn’t field enough senior players for a team.

If you’re out of senior players, you should just be asked to play youth players. But that’s a discussion for another day.

Arsenal vs Manchester City Premier League preview: Mikel Arteta misses with Covid as Pep Guardiola’s league leaders present tough test

Riding high after the 5-0 massacre of Norwich, playing twice inside 45 hours might not have been all that bad, actually. Wolves have won just two of their last eight matches, a run of games where they’ve also only scored two goals.

Nevertheless, with Arsenal having their own Covid cases, the game being called off actually did them a favour. Now they’ll get more rest for key members of the squad and, perhaps crucially, Man City will have played one more game.

What has come as a huge blow to Arsenal is the news of Arteta testing positive for Covid. The manager will not be on the touchline for the visit of his former side, and given his close contact with many of the squad it remains to be seen whether or not the game will be going ahead.

If the game goes ahead, as it appears to be at present, then a tough task will be made even harder by the manager’s lack of animation and on-field coaching on the sidelines.

Will the annual home thumping of City be on the cards again?

How to Watch on TV

When Is Kick Off? Saturday 1 January
What Time Is Kick Off? 12:30 (GMT)
Where Is it Played? Emirates Stadium
TV Channel/Live Stream? BT Sport (UK) fuboTV (USA)
Referee? Stuart Atwell

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Arsenal Team News vs Man City – Arteta Misses Out With Covid

Confirmed on Wednesday was the news that Arteta tested positive with Covid, the second time this has happened with the manager being one of the first names in football to contract the virus back in March 2020.

As it stands, the other cases within the camp are Takehiro Tomiyasu, Calum Chambers, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Cedric Soares, with only one of those due to be available for selection in Chambers.

Isolation rules state that players need to quarantine for seven days before they can return to action, with two negative tests needed before then. It isn’t known exactly when three of the quartet tested positive, but even if they would be in line to feature their lack of training will work against them taking part.

As far as injuries go, Sead Kolasinac is the only absentee with an ankle injury, and the additional resting time for those who featured at Carrow Road means that another strong team can be put out.

That includes all four of the African contingent, with the likes of Thomas Partey available for selection for the final time before they jet off to AFCON.

There are two injury concerns City are dealing with ahead of this clash, with John Stones and Rodri not included in the squad that faced Brentford. The pair could be back for the weekend, though.

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Arsenal Predicted Lineup to Face Man City – Emile Smith Rowe on the Bench Again?

Arsenal: Ramsdale; White, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney; Partey, Xhaka, Odegaard; Saka, Lacazette, Martinelli

Manchester City: Ederson; Walker, Dias, Laporte, Cancelo; Gundogan, Rodri, De Bruyne; Bernardo, Foden, Sterling

Arsenal hate playing Manchester City. Manchester City love playing Arsenal. The fixtures between these two have been hideously one-sided of late.

Not only have the Gunners lost five in a row against the Citizens, they’ve failed to score in all five of those. Should they draw a blank again, it will equal their record of six consecutive matches against the same opposition without scoring (Liverpool in 2000 and Chelsea in 2016).

Throw in the absence of a very animated and vocal manager on the sidelines and this task becomes even tougher.

Supporters will, however, be feeling unusually confident. Arteta’s stamp is all over this team and the performances of late show a strong improvement in all departments, especially in front of goal. The only issue with looking at this from the perspective of Arsenal improving is that so are Man City.

Sitting top of the Premier League by nine points heading into the new year, albeit with an additional game played, they have top performers across their side with an abundance of threat. Kevin De Bruyne is finding his stride, Rodri has been the best holding midfielder in the league, Cancelo has a case for being the best full-back in Europe and fellow teammates Ilkay Gundogan and Phil Foden continue to mesmerise.

All without mentioning Bernardo Silva, who has been the outstanding player this season alongside Mohamed Salah.

There is so much to be encouraged about with Arsenal lately. Whatever the outcome at the Emirates may be, that shouldn’t change. You hope so too, since it’s hard to look past an away victory.

Score Prediction: Arsenal 0-2 Manchester City