By Bulldog Drummond
Additional note:
Thought I would watch it on Now TV with a day pass. £9.99. Clicked on the link on their site, credit card at the ready, and what do I get?
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Glad to see that the media’s regard for the people who pay for it is not wavering.
Here’s the preview
To start with the referee and linesmen – Untold is working on a whole new set of data on the officials… we haven’t quite got everything ready just yet, but in general terms I can say that this is going to be a case of a referee and his team who knows these players rather well.
In terms of the historic battles between the two clubs, for most of history Arsenal have had the upper hand. We’ve won 96, drawn 45 and lost 56.
But our recent form has not been so good
| Date | Game | Res | Score | Competition |
| 18 Jan 2015 | Manchester City v Arsenal | W | 0-2 | Premier League |
| 21 Dec 2015 | Arsenal v Manchester City | W | 2-1 | Premier League |
| 08 May 2016 | Manchester City v Arsenal | D | 2-2 | Premier League |
| 18 Dec 2016 | Manchester City v Arsenal | L | 2-1 | Premier League |
| 02 Apr 2017 | Arsenal v Manchester City | D | 2-2 | Premier League |
| 23 Apr 2017 | Arsenal v Manchester City | W | 2-1 | FA Cup |
| 05 Nov 2017 | Manchester City v Arsenal | L | 3-1 | Premier League |
| 25 Feb 2018 | Arsenal v Manchester City | L | 0-3 | League Cup |
| 01 Mar 2018 | Arsenal v Manchester City | L | 0-3 | Premier League |
| 12 Aug 2018 | Arsenal v Manchester City | L | 0-2 | Premier League |
| 03 Feb 2019 | Manchester City v Arsenal | L | 3-1 | Premier League |
| 15 Dec 2019 | Arsenal v Manchester City | L | 0-3 | Premier League |
Here’s the Independent’s suggestion for the opening team.
Leno,
Bellerin, Luiz, Mustafi, Tierney,
Xhaka, Torreira,
Saka, Ozil Pepe,
Aubameyang.
Their odds do not reflect the changes that have been seen in Germany in terms of home and away form. Arsenal they think have no chance.
- Man City – 4/11
- Draw – 19/4
- Arsenal – 8/1
The Evening Standard go with
Leno;
Bellerin, Luiz, Mustafi, Tierney;
Ceballos, Xhaka;
Pepe, Ozil, Aubameyang;
Lacazette
Sportsmole have come up with an interesting thought saying, “City, who are 11 points worse off than at the same stage last season, have by no means been invincible in front of their own fans, though, and Arteta may sense an opportunity to get one over on his former employers amid continued suggestions that the Premier League is now at the bottom of their priority list.”
They go with
Leno;
Bellerin, Luiz, Mustafi, Saka;
Guendouzi, Xhaka;
Pepe, Ozil, Aubameyang;
Lacazette
I’ll stick with the thought offered in Untold recently (but not really picked up by the media, it seems). The Arsenal manager knows a lot about the managerial tactics of the City manager, but the City manager knows nothing about the managerial tactics of the Arsenal manager. That might just help us.
Interesting that everyone is picking Mustafi, who a little while ago was considered by the journalists and bloggers as being so awful that he wasn’t fit to take down the nets at the end of the game. But apparently we are supposed to forget those comments and just carry on as if they were never made.
In terms of the rule change, we can now have five substitutes but they can only be brought on across three occasions – so the game does not get stopped any more than is allowable under the current regulations.
What we do have is a mass of youngsters coming through so it will be interesting to see who is on the beach.
Meanwhile Henry Mauriss, described as an American television executive, has made a bid of £350m to buy the club from Mike Ashley. This is £50m more than the price offered by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund. The League has been desperately trying to find something inside their “fit and proper person” rules that will allow them to stop the Saudi bid from going through. This could be their way out.
As we’ve shown on Untold, the trouble is the rules are designed to stop people with a criminal record from taking over a club – it doesn’t have anything in it to stop rather nasty dictators who abuse women’s rights from running a club. And more specifically there is nothing to stop someone who is running a set of TV channels that decode encrypted football matches and then rebroadcast them, as part of a long running dispute between different Arab nations (known in the trade as the second Arab cold war).
We’ll come back to that anon. For now, we can but hope for the best and the miracle of some reasonable refereeing.
- Manchester City v Arsenal. Looking for a 0-3 victory.
- Man City v Arsenal: let the press negativity and referee bias recommence
- Oh yes he did oh no he didn’t. The statistical discussion about football statistics
Referee: Anthony Taylor. Assistants: Gary Beswick, Adam Nunn. Fourth official: Martin Atkinson. VAR: Stuart Attwell. Assistant VAR: Stephen Child.
As bulldog said, no great surprises there. Well just have to hope for the best.
Well, we’ve got quite a few young guns in charge here… interesting line-up. Speed seems to be important.
I am wishing the Gunners goodluuck in their restart PL match against the Citizens tonight at the Etihad. I wish to predict a 0-2 away win for the Gunners in the match.
2 players limped of injured already within the first 20 minutes.
Looks like Xhaka turned his foot as the ball hit it and has been replaced by Ceballos, and Mari looks like he’s pulled a calf muscle and been replaced by Luiz.
Good job we’ve got 5 subs available.
It seems Taylor hasn’t forgotten how to referee Arsenal
No change…that was a l^clear foul 18 meters straight in front of the City goal. the city player makes nketiah (?) fall, in front of the ref
Looks like PIGMOB is just behaving as usual
No change in us giving away goals either it seems….man that was just totally un-necessary
Luiz…just straight up blew it!
Bad luck to lose Xhaka and Mari early on
To be fair if it wasn’t for leno they could be out of sight already, but so frustrating to concede such a sloppy goal so close to half time.
We are getting opportunities for counters but our midfielders are not making the right choices. So far only our CBs are creating semi-opportunities. If we can hold them to this scoreline we could put Oezil on and…oh right…
Leno has played extremely well. The ten men in front are finding it difficult to get out of our third let alone over half. Fair play to City.
How the foul on Nketiah was missed, though…the defender had both arms around him.
well, Luiz should have known better. City can bring anyone to fall with no ref call. Arsenal get a red card.
And now we are losing player Nr 3….
Question…does the ref have to give a red there? It was a foul and in the box…penalty, but necessarily a red?
Can’t blame Leno for either goal
GGG
I believe the crucial factor as to whether it’s a red or a yellow is was there any attempt to play the ball. If not it’s a red.
I don’t think there was any attempt to play the ball so a red card was probably correct.
The point is though the foul on Saka in the first half was of a similar nature but worse and he gave nothing.
We are not good and City easily deserve their lead, but as for the refereeing, it seems nothing has changed.
Indeed Nitram, in the previous match this evening the whole goalline technology system failed, and so the result was changed from what it should have been.
Finally a Yellow for City. Oh there’s only 12 minutes left, how about that.
Nasty knock for a City player lets hope he’s ok.
Curious…Ederson flattens his teammate, the ball goes directly to an Arsenal player with an open net (albeit from 45 metres), the whistle blows immediately.What are the rules here? It was a clear goal chance, no?
another horrible goal conceded…again, great work by Leno. MOM for our club. Mustafi took a chance…
GGG,
was thinking the same thing. Why whistle ? Normally arsenal ought to kick the ball out or play.
But then, PIGMOB rules and they are incompetent carricatures of referees
Yet another shameful performance from a Manchester referee. This time in a game involving a team from Manchester and a team from London. How did that happen? He seems to use “interpretation” as a regulatory device.