Arsenal began their preparations for meeting Manchester City in the Premier League in the worst possible way – by losing to Lens in the Champions League and possibly losing Bukayo Saka for the match in the process. Nevertheless, after 12 straight league defeats to the Citizens, it is unlikely that even a damaging loss in Europe and the potential absence of their best player will do much to damage the North London club’s confidence because that confidence cannot have been very high in the first place.
How Arsenal Can Make It Lucky 13 Against City
Poor Precedent for Arsenal
It is worth reflecting for a moment on how awful Arsenal’s recent Premier League record is against Manchester City. Twelve successive losses in the league, which is by far the worst record against any one club in the club’s entire history, means six consecutive seasons of home and away defeats, a record that stretches so far back that it extends to Arsene Wenger’s time in charge of the Gunners. In all that time, there has not even been a league draw between the two sides, with City being dominant.
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It is true that Arsenal have beaten City in that period, twice in FA Cup semi-finals (in 2017 and 2020), and once in the Community Shield this summer. The celebration police, who often target the Gunners, condemned what they regarded as their excessive celebrations after beating City on penalties in what is really a pre-season game. However, given that most of Mikel Arteta’s players have never experienced any kind of victory over the champions and treble winners, perhaps they should be cut a little slack.
Now, however, they face a game against City that is of the utmost seriousness: a home game this weekend in the Premier League. Victory would not only take them above the Manchester club in the league table. It would also give them the belief they can challenge and even overtake their opponents in the race to the league title.
Watch: Last Word on Football analyse Arsenal this season.
Five Ways In Which Arsenal Can Beat City
1. Pick the Right Goalkeeper
Much has been made of Mikel Arteta’s decision to secure David Raya from Brentford. It has even been said that the Spaniard is attempting to introduce the one tactical development that Pep Guardiola has not tried so far, namely having two first-choice goalkeepers who can compete against each other and possibly replace each other in the same game. However, it is also possible that Arteta has needlessly created a problem for himself and his team by generating uncertainty about who exactly is the better goalkeeper out of Raya and Aaron Ramsdale.
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After a mistake by Raya led to the Lens equaliser in midweek, which is the second error leading to a goal that the Spaniard has made following his failure to collect a cross against Spurs, it is surely only logical that the Gunners boss replaces him for the City match with Ramsdale. The England goalkeeper had done little or nothing to deserve being dropped in the first place. However, if Arteta persists with Raya despite his recent mistakes, it will surely prove beyond doubt that all the talk of having two first-choice keepers is just a smokescreen and that the Spanish goalkeeper is definitely his first choice, regardless of how well he plays.
2. Encourage Zinchenko to Stay at Home in Defence
One tactical development that Arteta has undeniably copied from Guardiola is to encourage his full-backs to venture forward into midfield when the team is on the attack. However, the results so far this season have been mixed. First, there was the tactical disaster of playing Thomas Partey at right-back, a position that the hulking and relatively immobile central midfielder was unsuited to. Then, against Lens, Zinchenko was caught out – and the French side exploited his absence in defence to score their winning goal.
Zinchenko is, by inclination, a midfielder; that is the position he plays for his national side, Ukraine, and what allows him to slide so effortlessly into midfield from defence. However, Arteta must remind him that his primary responsibility to the team is as a defender. The Emirates manager could cite the example of Ben White, who has developed into a superb attacking full-back despite spending most of his career in central defence, as the best possible example for Zinchenko to learn from.
3. Power up the Midfield
Kai Havertz continues to be the elephant in the room. He is an undeniably talented player, but ever since the Gunners first expressed an interest in signing him, it has not been clear where and how he fits into the team. He is not physically strong enough, or a good enough tackler, to play in central midfield, which he is nominally supposed to do after replacing Granit Xhaka, but nor is he a good enough attacking midfielder or No.10.
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Right now, the best option for the German and the whole team is to take him out of the firing line, or at least the direct firing line of central midfield, where so many games are won or lost. In the absence through suspension of Rodri, who has become City’s most important player over the last year, Arteta must be tempted to double down and power up in that area by pairing Declan Rice with Thomas Partey for the first time. Rodri’s possible replacements, Matheus Nunes or the nearly forgotten-about Kalvin Phillips, are not in his class, and a combination of Rice and Partey could physically dominate the middle of the park. And if Arteta is still intent on using the German international, he can play him where he is best utilised, in attack, and possibly on the right-hand side if Saka is injured.
4. Take Their Chances
This is the single biggest and simplest thing that Arsenal have to do. Already this season, against both Tottenham and Lens, they have failed to score the second and killer goal when they have been in the lead and have ultimately paid the price for that deficiency. The suspicion remains that if Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah could somehow be combined in one player – grafting Jesus’s all-round play onto Nketiah’s superior finishing – the Gunners would have the natural goal-scorer they so desperately need.
Jesus and Nketiah must absolutely focus on finishing their chances. Against City and their formidable defence – they are unlikely to get many of them.
5. In the Immortal Words of Daft Punk: Get Lucky
Obviously, Arsenal cannot actually plan to get lucky, such as benefiting from a rare City error or own goal. But if they enjoy such good fortune, they must make the most of it. And if victory against the Cityzens is impossible, they should happily settle for a draw to snap this long and miserable losing streak.
