Match Preview: Arsenal v Manchester City – New Beginnings Start At Home

FINALLY!! It’s time. Now it’s time for us all to stop prognosticating and start seeing some action. This Sunday, Arsenal take the pitch for the first time under new management in a game that matters. And if that wasn’t enough it’s a test right out of the chute – current champion’s Manchester City come to the Emirates.

The 2018-2019 Premier League season gets under way this weekend. It’s also our first real look at “Emery-ball.” We’ll see the infant steps of a new system imparted on our players as the begin the transformation back to the heights we should be at.

It won’t be an easy journey and having a match like this right at the start is enough to test anyone’s nerves. But, it bares mentioning, we have to be patient. This transformation isn’t going to suddenly click.

It took Pep Guardiola a full year to figure out the Premier League. For Jurgen Klopp, it took 18 months. The good news may be is that Emery was blessed with a full pre-season and pretty much all of his key players.

We know what we’re looking for from Emery-ball. We’re looking for frenetic pressing and attempts to win the ball up high and force a quick counter higher up the pitch. Additionally, we are looking for a defensive system that puts our back four in better shape to cut down on shots and goals. Something, we all know hasn’t been a trademark these last few years (okay, longer than that.)

Whereas, under former manager Arsene Wenger, the team had freedom to be creative and movement. Emery is a system manager and will expect his players to adhere to the system he sets up. Everyone will have a role and as the team matures and understands what the manager wants, it will become more evident.

That’s not to say he won’t play good, attractive football. Talking to ESPN, one of Emery’s former players, Cesar Sanchez, a Goalkeeper for Valencia had this to say:

“Fans are not going to see possession for the sake of possession. They are going to see the kind of football that English people like: open games, with a lot of aggressiveness”

Big questions remain about the squad, not so much in attack but the personal available for the back 4, especially, the center backs. Stalwart Laurent Koscielny is out and, in all honesty, may not be back at all, at least as a starter.

So that leaves our likely CB pairing as Mustafi and Sokratis. They worry a lot of people. I am neither worried nor positive – fact is I just don’t know how they will do. I am still not convinced Sokratis performances at Dortmund were entirely down to the player. With two new coaches and poor coaching all around, it could’ve been a reaction to that. But we’ll see.

Maybe, just maybe with a solid structure, and a DM providing cover to the back line, our defensive woes might abate.

The remaining question is who starts in goal – Leno or Cech. I am edging towards Leno as I think his distribution skills are slightly better than Cech’s but Cech has the league experience and didn’t look too bad distributing the ball out of the back this pre-season.

Regardless, it’s the start of something new, and for the first time in a while, we enter the season with a good sense of the unknown and a twinge of excitement at the newness of it all. That in itself is enough to look forward to this year if you already weren’t.

How the Match Should Play Out

 Going to be honest, I hate having two clubs of this magnitude play each other so early in the season. Neither team will be 100% ready for the start of season and it will still look slightly like a pre-season match, but the result has meaning.

Home is where the heart is and its where last season, Arsenal actually looked like a formidable team. Our record at the Emirates last year was a solid 16W 2D 2L. Of those 16 wins 12 of them were by 2 more goals.

So at least we’ll have that going for us when the Champion’s visit.

Still, City’s B team is as good as many of the first teams in the Premier League and they are now fully onboard with Pep’s style of play. It will be solid first test for Arsenal under Emery and his defensive set is going to get blooded quite early.

The Manager’s Take (courtesy Arsenal.com):

We are working to improve each match and each training session. But Sunday, we need to show on the pitch our performance at a big level. The position is demanding our best moments tactically and also individually. It’s for that, that on Sunday I want first to be together with our supporters. It helps, if we’re together, for the players to show their best performance and to transmit with every supporter the quality, the energy and the spirit to go forward against Manchester City.

We want to start well, we want to play and we want to show our quality, our work in this month tactically and with our spirit. I want to show and to be together with the supporters and to start a new way, a new process, with the same players and also our new players with us, and with a new coach and new staff.

 City, I think, after two years of working with Guardiola they have more stability, more security and when you watch City’s matches, they are playing with a very, very great confidence in themselves. Also, I think that Guardiola’s coaching is clear in this team. For that, we are working this week and preparing for this game and preparing for the opposition, against City, as a collective and as individual players. Above all, it’s about confidence in ourselves to play the best match on Sunday. We are to think only to win the match.

 Players To Watch

Arsenal. Mesut Özil. He finally has talent in front of him that can bury the chances he creates. If Emery runs out his favored 4-2-3-1, look for the German player maker to be the focal point of the attack.

City. Sergio Aguero. I don’t always covet another team’s player but Kun Aguero is one I wish we’d had for years at Arsenal. Simply one of the best forwards we’ve seen in the league for a while.

Probable Arsenal Line Up

Leno; Bellerin, Mustafi, Sokratis, Maitland-Niles; Guendouzi, Ramsey; Özil, Aubameyang, Mkhitaryan; Lacazette

Injuries and Suspensions

Arsenal: Kolasinac (knee), Koscielny (knee)

Manchester City: Mendy (muscle)

Match Officials

Referee: Michael Oliver
Assistants: Simon Bennett, Stuart Burt
Fourth official: Andre Marriner

Broadcast Information

UK: Sky Sports 16.00 BST

US: NBC SN 11:00 AM EST

Match Facts (courtesy BBC.co.uk)

• Arsenal have just two wins in the last 12 meetings with Manchester City (D5, L5).
• Manchester City could win consecutive top-flight away games against Arsenal for the first time since 1936.
• This is the first time that Arsenal will face the reigning champions on the opening day since 1970, when they drew 2-2 with Everton.
• The last time these sides met on the opening day was in 1994, when George Graham’s Arsenal side won 3-0 at Highbury.

• The Gunners’ only defeat in their last 11 home Premier League games was a 3-0 loss to Manchester City (W8, D2).
• The last time Arsenal played a competitive match without Arsene Wenger in charge was in September 1996, when Pat Rice was caretaker for a 2-0 Premier League win over Sunderland.
• Four of the last five Arsenal managers have won their first league game in charge – only Bruce Rioch failed to do so, drawing with Middlesbrough in August 1995.
• Unai Emery could become the first Arsenal boss to lose his opening league fixture since Steve Burtenshaw’s team lost 1-0 to Spurs in March 1986.
• Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has 10 goals and four assists in 13 Premier League appearances.

YAMA Predicts

 Arsenal 2 – 2 City