Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
There is no doubting that this is set to be an action packed Super Sunday (well at least that is the hope anyway) and the second of the four fixtures on offer takes us to The Etihad as the footballing juggernaut which is currently Manchester City play host to Arsenal.
After the first ten matches we could reel off a whole host of stats that show off City’s dominance, the fact I haven’t does not mean I’m lazy it just means that if I listed all of them I would probably be here until kick off and still not have finished this article.
Quite frankly there is no understating City’s dominance at present, they have just dropped just two points at home to Everton this season and when you look at the how the latter have been performing this season you almost have to question how it has not been a perfect 10.
Today they look to make it 31 points from 33 as they play host to Arsenal side who will have aspirations of trying to be the first team to get the better of City this season in any competition but not only that they can ill afford to drop any points in what is already becoming a compettive race for the top four.
The nightmare scenario for both they and Chelsea later today is that they both suffer defeat to Manchester clubs and then we start to see a two tier split within in the top six. We could well be looking at the Manchester duo and Tottenham in one half with Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool then in a scrap for fourth.
Quite simply they cannot allow a chasm to appear this early in the season especially with the form that City are in because you could almost make a case that defeat today would extinguish any faint hopes that Arsenal may have had of being serious contenders in this title race.
Thursday saw Arsenal held to a 0-0 draw with Red Star Belgrade in the Europa League, this one was a match for the purists and even they would have struggled to watch that one especially when you compare their arch rivals win over Real Madrid just 24 hours previously.
That draw has seen them qualify for the Round of 32 with two matches to spare and that will allow Arsene Wenger to dig deeper into a squad which has already seen many opportunities afforded to its younger members but the focus now shifts back to the Premier League until the competition resumes after the winter hiatus.
Last weekend they had to become from behind against Swansea at The Emirates to keep hold of their one hundred percent record at home, Sam Clucas’ first half strike for the South Wales outfit was certainly not expected but the Gunners managed to get through the gears and earn all three points.
Manchester City have been on the road over the past week with wins over both West Brom and Napoli, the win over Tony Pulis’ men was not as tight as the scoreline suggests as they were not quite as ruthless as they have been over the past few weeks.
But the win in Italy would have made a lot of people sit up and take note at another well crafted performance in the Champions League not only that but to beat Napoli on their own turf who themselves have not lost in Serie A this season would have laid down something of a marker.
As for today though City will go into this game favourites for the simple fact that no-one has got close to them as of late, you cannot discount Arsenal especially if they can play the same way they did against Chelsea in September but the two oppositions are very different beasts indeed. I think it will be a home win for City but not necessarily by a cricket score.
You can vote on twitter for the outcome of the game
