Arsenal Set For Crucial Thriller With Manchester City
Arsenal are set to host Manchester City on Sunday, April 8, 2012, in a match that is crucial to the fortunes of both teams. While Gunners will want to hang on to their third spot on the league table, Man City will look to win the game and keep their title bid alive with Man United already five points adrift of Mancini’s men, at the top of the table.
To find out what time the match between Arsenal and Manchester City is due to start, take a look at the EPL Schedule.
Arsenal will be optimistic ahead of Sunday’s game, on the back of their brilliant home form, with wins registered in all of their last six games played at the Emirates. Added to that is Man City’s woeful away record, with just seven wins on the road for the Etihad side.
Ahead of the game with City, Arsenal have had a rude awakening losing 2-1 away last week to QPR, following a seven-game winning run. With Tottenham and Chelsea hot on their heels, Arsenal will need a win to be assured of staying at third place. However, their past record against Man City this season has not been encouraging, with losses suffered in both the reverse leg of the EPL, as well as in the Carling Cup. Arsenal’s eventual standing could well be decided in their home match with Chelsea, before which they have a couple of easy games with relegation zone teams, in the form of Wigan and Wolves.
Man City who led through most of the season have lost their touch in recent weeks, never more evident than in the scrappy draw against Sunderland last weekend. Trailing 3-1 till the late stages of that game, City just managed to eke out a draw against rivals they would have expected to whip soundly, earlier in the season. to keep their title ambitions alive, City will need to win every game from now on and pray that Man United falter at some stage. The Manchester derby against United at the end of April could be the title clash, provided City manage to prevail over all their other rivals.
Fortunately for City, their next three clashes against West Brom, at home, and Norwich and Wolves, on the road, shouldn’t prove too daunting. But before that, they need to get full three points from the Arsenal game, if they are not to fall farther behind United, who have a home clash with QPR, on the weekend, a game the Old Trafford side would back themselves to win.
Sunday’s game will be too close to call. With Kompany back to bolster City’s defence, Gunners could find goal-scoring that much more difficult, especially as Golden Boot favourite Van Persie has gone three games without finding the rival net. That said, City are likely to find Arsenal formidable in the latter’s home conditions.
Arsenal’s probable eleven: Scczesny, Vermaelen, Koscielny, Gibbs, Sagna, Song, Artate, Rosicky, Gervinho, Walcott, Van Persie.
Man City’s probable eleven: Hart, Kompany, Toure, Clichy, Richards, De Jong, Barry, Toure, Silva, Nasri, Balotelli.
About the Author (Author Profile)
Jinxatious is the Chief Editor of SportingAttitude.com
An avid writer, on an eclectic range of subjects, he brings to bear editorial experience garnered with a national newspaper in South-East Asia. He also has sportscasting experience, as a cricket commentator, and his passion for sport extends beyond Cricket, to Football, Tennis, and Olympic Sports.
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