Revenge time for Manchester City
The big meeting in Friday's FA Cup is Man City taking on Arsenal. Certainly, this meeting tickles a little extra given the table position in the Premier League. Arsenal lead ahead of early favorite Man City.
In addition to advancing to the FA Cup round, this match can give a kind of indication of how the rest of the PL season will be. Should Man City overtake Arsenal, it might send a message that the Blues are coming to hunt the Premier League leaders and make the Gunners a bit nervous, as these teams will meet twice in the league as well. In the other scenario, If Arsenal wins here, perhaps Man City mentally feels that that points lead will be a little too difficult in a spring season when the CL also has to be a priority. So, this is a tough test for both!
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Manchester City analysis
One thing is for sure. Neither Arsenal, or City need a replay match, which will make their schedule even more difficult. This is a match to show priorities. Sometimes it is possible to figure it out via media reporting, sometimes you have to put the puzzle together yourself.
Here, both teams have four rest days before and an entire match-free week after. So there are at least the conditions for strong teams. We'll see how it turns out in practice. But should there be approximately equal rotation for both, Man City may be said to have a slightly wider squad. So Pep Guardiola will show his intentions just by presenting his starting 11.
Man City is the team with the best quality players in England. They were a bit careless in some matches, which cost them crucial points, but as Guardiola pointed out the main difference between his team and the rest of the title contenders is the “hunger”. And his team is not hungry enough, given the titles they’ve won the past years.
The biggest task seems to be the Champions League for City. But in order to achieve something like this you need to have your top players in top form the moment it matters most. The Blues need to show they are still the better team. And Pep probably is eager to push Arteta. The fact that Pep pushed the home fans the other week and complained about the atmosphere should mean that even these should be on their toes when there is a big Friday party coming up.
Then there is the feeling that the half-time break against Tottenham was some kind of low point. City had two straight cod and were 0-2 down, turned around to 4-2 in the second half and brushed aside Wolves at the weekend without much trouble. Each match is unique and going into what the teams had for odds in various previous matches is not always worthwhile.
Arsenal analysis
Arsenal have received a lot of praise and accolades. They are having a magical season. Deserves to be where they are and it looks sensationally good. But this is perhaps the toughest test of the season. Have passed pretty much all previous challenges in a very good way, but I think this will be something else. Can probably stand up in a good way, but I think it will be a bit too tough.
Given that Arsenal pumped with the same starting eleven in match after match, this seems like a nice opportunity for Arteta to rotate in at least a couple of positions. Trossard from the start instead of Saka or Martinelli, maybe, Tomiyasu instead of Ben White and possibly Tierney in the left-back position. Arteta is in a dream position to win the Premier League title. This gives him two options for the FA Cup:
Go all in, and fight for the FA Cup as well.
Leave the competition now and get some free dates in the long term and focus on the PL. He still has the Europa League to use for rotation. So if Arsenal had to choose which game to a game beforehand to win against Man City they would have picked one of the league games. That's not to say they're throwing this game, but it seems that Arsenal aren’t completely all in...
Manchester City - Arsenal: What to expect?
For Arsenal to avoid defeat, they will have to go all in, put in a top performance and be happy to face a City who are not in their best form. Will they add another headache in their season or will they keep focused on the much more important Premier League hunt? A bet on Manchester City, which you won’t find so good odds while playing at home, seems the wise bet! Just a reminder: Manchester City was given 1.50 to win the home semifinal of the Champions League against Real Madrid last year. And now, the odds are even higher! So it seems like a nice opportunity.
- Manchester City to win
* All odds and markets are correct at time of publication and subject to change.