Arsenal start off their Premier league campaign against Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium, in what promises to be a cracker of a contest.
Arsenal’s new era officially begins tomorrow. Unai Emery has been coaching the players for close to a month and a half, but the opener against Manchester City is when it all gets put to test. The signs in pre-season have been promising. We have started playing out from the back with good effect, the speed of passing in transition has been top notch and we have worked very hard on working set pieces with good effect. However, a slight reality check here – Man City are champions for a reason. They’re by far the best team in the country and getting 100 points in the league last season was no fluke. So, it is not going to be easy by any means to just pick them off like how we did against some in pre-season. This is a completely different ball game.
Arsenal’s recent record against City is appalling to say the least. Since Pep Guardiola’s arrival, Arsenal lost 3 out of the 4 games we played against them in the league, leaking in 1o goals in the process – not to mention the 3-0 drubbing in the league cup final. But this is a new Arsenal. This is a fresh start for the club. It’s hard to be worse at the back than what we were in the past 2 seasons. So there is definitely reason for some level of optimism going into this one. Personally, I feel very excited cause we’re finally going to see the change we were all crying out for put into test on the pitch against the very best.
HOW ARSENAL CAN BEAT MANCHESTER CITY:
Be very organised at the back for 90 minutes. We have to pick our moments as to when to press them and when to sit. That’s the most important thing. When we lost 3-0 to them at the Emirates earlier this year, we were so disorganised with our press and a Pep Guardiola side will pick you off most of the time if that’s the case. We also have to be very careful while playing out from the back. The last thing we need is to do a cheap giveaway in our own half. I really believe their back 4 can be exploited if we win the ball high up the pitch play as direct as possible. So the bottom line is that with a top class all round performance, we can definitely beat them.
Here’s how I think we’ll set up:
FORMATION: 4-2-3-1
Score prediction: Arsenal 3 Manchester City 1
