Arsenal vs Manchester City (H) | Sunday Oct 8 | 16:30 PM BST - The Arsenal discussion community: One More in the Tolly

Arsenal vs Manchester City (H) | Sunday Oct 8 | 16:30 PM BST

KingslandBarge

Mikel's pre match comments:
Partey to be in the squad, Saka in contention.

Man City last 5 games in all comps: WLLWW
Possibly their lineup: Ederson; Walker, Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol; Nunes, Kovacic, Alvarez; Doku, Haaland, Foden.

Most Consecutive Wins vs One Opponent in English Top Flight
Chelsea vs West Brom – 15 (Last Win: 20 August 2011)
Manchester City vs West Brom – 13 (Last Win: 31 January 2018)
Manchester United vs Wigan Athletic – 13 (Last Win: 26 December 2011)
Portsmouth vs Everton – 13 (Last Win: 4 February 1956)
Manchester City vs Arsenal – 12 (Ongoing)

Expect a great atmosphere to begin with but possible trepidation and flatness if things don't go according to fan expectations. Excited to see the team confront the challenge to go 1st/tied-1st. Concerned about mediocre trend from G. Jesus and O. Zinchenko against their former club, and a lack of pace against a pretty strong City defence.

Game will be on Sky Sports(🤮), NBC Peacock.

Panda

KingslandBarge Manchester City vs Arsenal – 12 (Ongoing)

OMG that is embarrassing, after having read that, if we can't manage a draw here, I'll probably cry.

Sicario2 - Tier 1

Must win game (if we are serious about winning the title).

The players should be fired up for this but will they?

The team they are facing is the one that ruined their dreams end of last season. How much did that hurt them or have they forgotten about that pain already? We will find out on Sunday and the performance will speak volumes about their psyche and character.

Start Partey. Don’t play Havertz or Eddie. Kill or be killed.

Qwiss

Sicario2 - Tier 1 Must win game

Does feel like that.

Sicario2 - Tier 1 Start Partey. Don’t play Havertz or Eddie. Kill or be killed.

If Saka is out Eddie should start. He's the best option we have.

Meatwad

the brain is so powerful, always wants to protect us. i would not have guessed that we've lost to those fuckers 12 straight times in the league. i know our record is shit, but i would have bet money we had a draw somewhere in there. fuck ... fuckin tragic.

PureBall

Meatwad 12 times in a row?

I would never have guessed that. That is fucking awful. Can’t lose this one.

I actually can see us getting better as the season goes on, we have a lot of ideas still to bed in. What we can’t allow is for city to build up a lead on us.

Minimum result is a draw.

Clrnc

I would argue must not lose. Can't stand losing to them 13th in a row

lorddulaarsenal

Free hit.

—————-———Raya
White——Saliba——-Gabriel—-Zinchenko
————————-Partey
—————Odegaard——Rice
Saka—————-Jesus———-Trossard

Sicario2 - Tier 1

lorddulaarsenal

Free hit? We are not Luton Town mate.

It’s a must win for me to avenge City, make a statement and also make up for points dropped v Fulham.

goon

Last couple of home games against them we’ve played really well only to crumble at some point. Last season in particular, we just didn’t come out at half time.

Play well, take the lead and then find a way to hold on and not crumble.

Gazza M

goon that's been the pattern of many of our games this season, regardless of the level of opponent. 30 solid minutes, 60 minutes of passiveness during which we give up cheap chances. guaranteed to get punished if we don't buck our ideas up against city

seen a few tweets suggesting saka is likely to be fit. play him, then tell Gareth to give him some rest during the internationals

banduan

problem is "not coming out at half time" is a pattern for this team in the Arteta era, refined from the initial stage of "coming out in only one half".

Clrnc

PureBall

Horrendous

awooga83

A big moment for Arteta and Arsenal. The record we have is abysmal and we just always seem to collapse and no matter what city side we've faced in the day, they brush us aside. My worry is lots of teams that have success against city attack them at pace but we don't have that in our game we are so slow generally.

But this is one of the markers for progression this season, no excuses time to get some kind of result against them

Pepe LeFrits

Not optimistic about this. Though they're missing players, they have had our number defensively for ages. Even when we were playing fairly free flowing stuff, we wouldn't create a sniff of a chance against them, so if we're to get any joy it'll probably be another penalty or a set piece. The only bright side is that I think we have a decent chance of nullifying their attack ourselves. The community shield game could be a model for this

flobaba

Feels like an ugly one is incoming.

Gazza M

flobaba yep. It's a weird feeling because it's not like we're in an obvious crisis, but it does feel like a slow simmer leading to an eventual boil over

goon

I said before we just need to get results while things are difficult, both in terms of injuries and the football we are playing. Eventually we’ll click into gear. We’ve seen plenty of title winners start the season slow, the key is not falling materially behind.

It’s a good thing that we are only 1 point worse off than last year so far despite things not quite working yet and we’ve been good for the points too.

If we can actually win tomorrow, take the lead and then use the international break to recoup and get all our guys back fit and firing, I reckon we will quickly get lift off.

QuincyAbeyie

goon It's one thing for City to start slow, but it's another when their competitors do it, since they pretty much always finish extremely strong.

Qwiss

goon if we win tomorrow we are title contenders.

Big Willie

goon It’s a good thing that we are only 1 point worse off than last year so far despite things not quite working yet and we’ve been good for the points too.

If we'recomparing just points for last season, then between now and the halfway mark last season, we only dropped 4 points with the other 3 dropped coming against United early on. And even then we were pegged back.

We don't need to get another 50 point half season but we need to be at around 45 points or so and being able to avoid a total loss of form like we did last season when we ended up taking 33 points from the 57 on offer during the second half, despite at one point going on a 7 game winning run. Consistency is key, and hopefully we can continue to grind out victories whilst we "find our feet", if that what we are in fact doing.

For tomorrow's game, I reckon we could win. Actually would feel very confident in our team from last season turning these lot over tomorrow with the players they are missing. That said it feels like we have deliberately changed our game from last season and unfortunately this new style doesn't give me much confidence. Hopefully im wrong and end up getting another 0 points for that game prediction 😁.