Lean into Hale End for the visit of Man City

Morning all.

It’s a big one today, with the visit of Man City to the Emirates. Liverpool won again yesterday, although in reality that doesn’t change much about what we need to do – whatever happened in their game, we have to get three points from this one.

In terms of today’s team, I’m going to assume that David Raya is fit and available. I don’t know if that is actually the case, but I don’t really want to think too much about this game with Neto in goal. His performance against Girona in midweek wasn’t particularly convincing, and I’d worry if he were called on today, so for now I’m going to give my mind some peace and envisage Raya starting this one.

After that, I think there are only two real selection decisions for the manager when he picks his team (unless there are some other injury issues we’re not aware of). For me it’s who starts at left-back, and who starts on the right of the front three. For the first one, I think he’ll go with Myles Lewis-Skelly, despite the fact there might be some spotlight on him after what happened last week with Wolves. In Riccardo Calafiori, he then has a defender on the bench who could make an attacking impact, and in the absence of much in the way of forward players available to him, that might well be a consideration.

After that, I’d be very tempted to keep Ethan Nwaneri in the side after his goal in midweek. Not just as a reward for that, but because he feels like the most natural fit for that position for this team and how we play. He’s not another Bukayo Saka, that’s an unfair comparison, but he’s more like him than either Gabriel Martinelli or Leandro Trossard – both of whom have played there since the Saka injury and done ok, but not much more than that. I don’t consider Raheem Sterling a viable option to start a game like this.

I don’t think the big occasion will faze Nwaneri one bit either, and if that right-sided triangle between him, Martin Odegaard and Jurrien Timber clicks, then we can cause them some real problems down that side. The one thing Arteta might be cautious about is the threat from Josko Gvardiol who pops up in dangerous places when City come forward, but maybe giving him more to think about defensively in the shape of Nwaneri offsets that a little bit. Then he can choose from one of Martinelli or Trossard on left, where City are likely to be playing midfielder Matheus Nunes at right-back, an area we might be able to exploit.

Midfield will be interesting too. City have plenty of experience, and lots of quality, but there are a lot miles in some of those legs, and we’ve seen plenty of occasions this season where their inability to react to moments of transition have contributed to their defensive issues. We know Arteta likes his ‘left 8’ to arrive late in the box, and I wonder if today might be a game that really suits Declan Rice in that position, with Thomas Partey playing more of an anchor role.

Asked in his press conference if there was a sense that there was ‘unfinished business’ against them because of what happened earlier in the season, Arteta said:

The business is to be better than them. That’s it. The only thing I review is what happened during that match, how competitive it gets is normal when two big teams want to win the game. Nothing else.

And that’s really all it boils down to today. Hopefully we can stay humble enough to put in the performance and take all three points, and with a big crowd right behind the team, create the kind of big-game atmosphere that drives us forward. It will be tough, it always is against Man City even if their season has been below par by their high standards, but fingers crossed the lads can dig deep and get the goals we need.

Right, let’s leave it there for now. You can find a preview podcast over on Patreon if you need something to pass the time until kick off. Join us later for live blog coverage, plus you’ll get the match report, goal clips, reaction, player ratings and much more over on Arseblog News.

Come on you reds!

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