Arsenal vs ManCity : Overdue a reaction

Usually would have had this preview up the night before the game but sadly got this serious pain in my right fingers hence typing is an arduous task, those little things we take for granted until something slices you a lil bit. Would have asked the Mrs to type my thoughts but she hasn’t forgiven me for this post, All of me loves All of Arsenal ,  worth a read if you haven’t read it before. so  I guess we are stuck with how much pain I can take typing this.

We host Man City today and our current form doesn’t inspire anyone with confidence that we can get anything out of this game especially considering how City dispatched of United in during the week. How are we the only team not to have beaten them has to be one of the major puzzles of the season. Our performance at midweek was somewhat indicative of how we have reacted to heavy defeats this season as we drew the games immediately after the heavy loss to City and Liverpool so it was another play with the handbrake on kind of performance which means though we are mathematically still in the title race, a lot of things have to go in our favour for us to be favourites for it again.

City come to our ground with an amazing away record in the league and we have also been pretty unbeatable at the Emirates this season in the league. I think the last game we lost here was the first against Aston Villa which is a very good thing if you look at United, Old Trafford is a scary place for them now though to be fair to them they have the best away record.

Would be interesting to see how the manager sets up his team for this game. Most of the criticism that stemmed out of the Chelsea loss was how he was tactically not as good as his immediate rivals and doesn’t pick the right team to start games. Few games left to the end of the season and errors at this stage leave little room for correcting so with Everton lurking behind us with a view to taking the fourth champions league spot especially as we still visit them would the manager be sending out a team to go and win it or just be content with not losing the game.

I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t want to win this game and I think City are not unbeatable to be honest.  Wenger’s win ratio in games against his direct rivals is terrible and a victory against City today would be the boost to having one of those late season runs that see us qualify fourth. Remember our early season form and how everyone spoke about the quality of our midfield which was the engine to the success we had early on, that midfield is gone now with Ramsey, Wilshere and Ozil out for long spells. On the other hand City have a midfield that has the quality to do exactly what we desire from ours, Yaya will go anywhere he wants to go, Fernandinho has be to be one of my players of the season and Silva and Nasri seem to be playing with so much freedom you would think Mancini had them in chains.

I really liked the few minutes we saw of Kim K against Swansea but I won’t jump on the bandwagon of folks saying everyone should be dropped for him to play. It might just be one of those adrenaline based performances since it was his first outing for the club. I hope I am wrong and he brings some quality that is much needed for the rest of the season but for I’ll go with Flamini in the middle. The rest of the team picks itself really as we either don’t have the options in the squad or injury has forced it upon us.

Just a little bit on the Sagna situation as we play ManCity, rumours had it earlier in the week indicating he has been offered a contract by City and is considering it. If City are considering getting him with the amount of funds they have to get anyone they want I suppose that’s a huge pointer to the kind of quality that he has. City has Zabelata and want to get a French international as back up, who do we have as backup, an England U21 international  and this is in no way saying Jenkinson is rubbish but it’s the ManCity kind of mentality that we need if we are ever going to compete in this league again. I really do hope the club has a perfect deal in place to sign someone better than Sagna else we would be stupid to let him go.

That’s all my fingers can take honestly, if you fancy winning an Arsenal cap or scarf send in your predictions for the game and our friends from www.jerserynmore.com will hook you up with one should you predict correctly.

I have a strong hope that we can get something out of this game, hope we do. Cheers to the freeking weekend!! #COYG

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