It’s a new season, each fan will be hoping with their team to be on the better side of the seasoned coin.
The English top-flight football has always been filled with enormous drama and mouth-watering fixtures.
The incoming season will no doubt produce more of the footballing fiasco across the 2020/21 season in the English Premier League.
Among the entertaining fixtures of the English Premier League is Arsenal Football Club versus Manchester City Football Club. These fixtures, beyond the normalcy of appearance, have an ideal footballing philosophy shared by both teams.
It is one the English Premier League matches that is widely anticipated due to the brand of football played by teams involved in the match. Prior to the Sheik Monsur taking over Manchester City, Arsenal had been tagged as the team with the most beautiful style of play, based on their possession-based footballing philosophy under the tutelage of French tactician, Arsene Wenger.
More importantly, since the appointment of Pep Guardiola at the Etihad stadium in 2016, Manchester City had overtaken Arsenal as the best ball-playing team in the English top-flight club competition.
The Etihad stadium team had been rebranded by the Spanish tactician with an attacking and possessive based philosophy style of play and that had ensured success locally despite City hunger for European dominance.
Although Pep Guardiola had been blistering the Gunners with enough injury prior to his arrival at Etihad stadium in 2016.
He had been dominating the game as winning emphatically since his time at FC Barcelona and Bayern Munich. But his arrival in England continues to evaporate Arsenal dominance as the best beautiful game played by a team in England.
Moreover, the appointment of his disciple, Mikel Arteta after the sacking of Unai Emery in the last campaign had begun to tilt the pendulum in favour of the North London club.
Arsenal! On the other hand, are gradually taking the former stance of Manchester City in the English Premier League position as they struggle to cope with the latest intensity style of play in the competition.
However, With Mikael Arteta as the boss of the Emirates stadium team, Arsenal had been flowing in the utmost deep right direction.
The North London club have rejuvenated under the Spaniard leadership as Arsenal found some rhythm towards the end of the last English Premier League campaign while defeating the top guns in the league and the FA Cup competition en route to the fourteenth FA Cup triumph on August 1.
Despite the new sense of direction found by the Gunners under Arteta, Man City is the favourite to win Arsenal in their next match.
The Cityzens falter behind Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-finals fixture that propels the Gunners eventually winning a silverware last season, despite their slow start to life under the guidance of Arteta. But Pep Guardiola will be hoping to exert revenge on Arsenal in this emerging campaign to again be the Champion Man City is ought to be.
The tie in this new season is set to produce many talking points with the tactical nuance of the boss and his protégé. with Manchester City losing their legend and a captain, David Silva to Real Sociedad in the current transfer window and versatile left attacking outlet, Leroy Sane, to Bayern Munich, the Cityzen wasted no effort as they recruited Nathan Ake from Bournemouth and Ferran Torres from Valencia quickly and quietly enough.
Although, the return of Angelino who was on loan with RB Leipzig would ensure that Pep is covered in both attack and defence in the coming campaign. The emerging news about Lionel Messi moving to the Etihad stadium wound inevitably made Man City the favourites in any English Premier League tie, if not in the whole of Europe in this campaign.
The shaky defence had always been the City problem throughout the last campaign, but the newfound rhythm of Aymeric Laporte and the evolution of Eric Garcia, going to the end of last season will be astonishing for the City in the coming season. Although the young Spaniard is touted to return to his boyhood club, the presence of Nathan Ake will bolster the squad defensively.
Arsenal, on the other hand, will be hoping that City should not be at their imperious best when they face City on the 17 of October, this year in their first encounter of the season.
The Gunners boss, Mikel Arteta, will be hoping to face the type of City they eliminated in the FA Cup semi-final in their previous campaign. Although, Arteta had learned a lot from his master, during his stay at the Etihad Stadium as an assistant coach.
However, their previous meetings had ended in each coach’s favour, as they both shared the winning on two occasions they met. However, the next fixture between Arsenal and Manchester City will be a battle of dominance as the coach had only won against each other once.
Although Arsenal’s top choice goalkeeper, Bernd Leno had been out injured, Emiliano Martinez had been a reliable custodian for the Gunner throughout his appearance. Arsenal have been able to sign Pablo Mari and William Saliba, despite not yet reaching an agreement with Real Madrid over Dani Ceballos. Arsenal are expected to get Aouar and Party this summer window.
Hopefully, Gabriel Martinelli will be back to his lethal best, after going out with injury since last season. But, this set of players will give the Gunners an edge to fight for the English Premier club competition. But going up against City will be a test to showcase the season success, despite going to the Etihad stadium first.
Furthermore, it will be a fixture of the statement. Pep Guardiola will be hoping to have an authority on his apprentice as his protégé will be willing to show his master once again that his ideal is now obsolete.
Although, their league meeting ended in favour of Manchester City with the same scoreline as the Cityzen edge the Gunners with three goals difference on both occasions. However, the FA Cup fixture triumph will enforce the Gunners with the right orientation going to the fixture in the coming campaign, as the North London club was victorious with the two-goal advantage in July.
Will Arsenal FC stun the Etihad stadium occupants on the 17th of October once again in their first-ever fixture of the season at the Etihad stadium or will Manchester City dominance come to play again.
Either way, Arsenal defeating Liverpool in the community shield cup will definitely raise the expectation of the fans and the football club management to hope for a better season. But, Man City will be going into the season without an injury crisis and hopefully, things stay the same throughout the season for the Manchester club.
And, the desire to return to winning ways will only be heightened by the fact that the Manchester club relinquished the champions throne to Liverpool while Pep managed his biggest ever defeat in a single league campaign in his coaching career as he fell behind Liverpool in the league with 18 points difference with the English champion.
Although each fan supporting both teams will be expecting their various teams to be the winner this fixture, Pep and Manchester City being at their tactical best will be heading into the match with an advantage over Arsenal and thus will be hoping to capitalize on the lack of Arsenal’s financial prowess in the transfer market.
Furthermore, this match will be full of drama, tenacity, tactical dominance and individual brilliancy of the star-studded teams as the likes of Aubameyang have quickly found his scoring boot, Bukayo Saka is improving his assist stat, Mari is finding is fitness again and David Luis is getting back his previous nuance for Arsenal.
However, Kelvin De Bruyne is at his deadly best, Sterling had found himself again, Phil Foden is getting better every match to earn his England call up, Eric Garcia is besting the experience defenders in City shirt, Angelino is back to Etihad and the tactical acquisition of Nathan Ake and Ferran Torres will equally be decisive.
But beyond all these star-studded manners, Manchester city will be dictating the play from the onset of the match and they (Manchester City) will be heading to the match as the big-time favourite to take the three-point off Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium. But Arsenal defensive solidity against the top team in the league has always been a recommendation to the emerging teams in the country.
Arsenal may be going as the underdog into the match, but they equally have everything to play for like their counterpart.
The last few matches have some clues on what to expect, but it is difficult to know which side will have benefitted the most in the incoming season as football returns without much rest for the players (most especially, Manchester city). But this match is a promising free-flowing, exciting game, but city firepower should give them the necessary edge to be victorious in this tie.
Man City is the favourite to win Arsenal in their next match and they should have a 3-1 advantage over Arsenal.
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