Manchester City lost another point on Liverpool in the title race, but the midweek results could still have been much worse. At least the defending champions only lost the single, instead of all three. Coming off a defeat at Newcastle United that shocked everybody who regularly pays attention, City manager Pep Guardiola will try to rally the troops in this weekend’s biggest Premier League fixture.
City hosts Arsenal, who just leapfrogged Chelsea into the top four after the midweek results. Guardiola says there is a lot of season left to be played, and that the focus must be on what they themselves can control- their performance. He isn’t interested in focusing on scoreboard watching.
“It doesn’t matter how many points we are behind, we have to improve our game,” said Guardiola at his Friday news conference.
“We have done it before and we can do it again, but nothing changed whether we are one or two points behind or five, six, or seven. There are a lot of points to play for and a lot of things to happen.”
“We are not happy about the last performance. Everyone knows at half-time and after game…We want to sustain the top level. There are a lot of games and sometimes it is a challenge and it is tough.”
Manchester City Starting XI Prediction vs Arsenal FC
Forwards: Leroy Sane, Sergio Aguero, Raheem Sterling
Midfielders: Kevin De Bruyne, Fernandinho, David Silva
Defenders: Danilo Aymeric Laporte John Stones Kyle Walker
Goalkeeper: Ederson
Arsenal at Manchester City FYIs
Injury Report for both sides: go to this link
Odds via Bet365: City win win 2/7, Draw 5/1, Arsenal FC win 15/2
Kickoff: Sunday, February 3, 4:30 PM local, City of Manchester Stadium
Google Result Probability: Manchester City win 74%, Draw 16% Arsenal win 10%
Starting XI Predictions: Arsenal FC
Pep Guardiola Press Conference Video:
Prediction: Manchester City 3, Arsenal FC 1
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.