Sports Blog 21/12/2015: Match Preview – Arsenal vs Manchester City, Monday 21st December 2015

With another weekend of bizarre-world results out of the way, Arsenal and Manchester City will be aiming to keep up with league leaders Leicester (something that still doesn’t sound right) when they meet at 8pm on Sky Sports 1 this Monday.

On 33 points to Leicester’s 38, Arsenal can’t overtake the Foxes with a win on Monday; however, 3 points would keep their title push alive, with the Gunners waiting in the wings for when Leicester (inevitably?) slip up. The North London side has bounced back quite convincingly since they lost to West Brom in November; a 1-1 draw against Norwich wasn’t ideal, but victories over Sunderland and Aston Villa domestically, and Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiakos in Europe, leaves Arsenal on 12 goals in their past 5 games with only 2 conceded. Yet City will be the hardest opponents Arsenal have faced since they played Tottenham near the start of November, something that may well expose their injuries-inspired weaknesses more than the relegation-battling likes of Villa and Sunderland.



With Coquelin, Cazorla, Welbeck, Wilshere and Rosicky all definitely out, Arsenal’s chances of a win might be dependent on the fitness of their Chilean talisman Alexis Sanchez. Back in training the miniature maestro may return on Monday evening, though Wenger might choose not to aggravate the Chilean’s hamstring with too early an appearance. Yet if he does play he could be the difference between the two sides, going into the game at a Super Mega PGM spread of 21-25. Of course, regardless of Sanchez, Arsenal still have the in form Olivier Giroud who, at a Super Mega PGM of 34-40, has scored 6 times in his last 3 games, including his vital hat-trick in Greece.

Despite sitting in 3rd in the Premier League (on 32 points, only one behind Arsenal), Manchester City have been all over the place in the last 2 months. In their last 7 games City have drawn against the truly woeful Aston Villa, beaten Southampton, Swansea and Borussia Monchengladbach, and suffered losses of varying degrees of embarrassing to Liverpool, Stoke and Juventus. If they are to maintain the pressure on Leicester, then, they will need to win against an Arsenal side they haven’t beaten since they imposed that nightmare-inducing 6-3 defeat on Wenger 2 years (and one week) ago.

However City may well be boosted by the return of their own South American supremo, Sergio Aguero likely to make an appearance on Monday evening after missing the last 4 games with a heel injury. Wilfried Bony, Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne (at 7/1, 9/1 and 10/1 to score first respectively) have all made a decent fist of it in Aguero’s absence, nabbing 5 goals between them in the last 4 games. Yet Aguero (at a Super Mega PGM of 28-33) has a superior 9 goals in 14 games, and an appearance from the Argentine may help the Manchester side regain some much-needed consistency.

Given that City have suffered slightly against their top of the table peers this season, the 4-1 defeats to Tottenham and Liverpool most notable, and the swagger the Gunners have shown in their past few games, our Spreadex traders fancy the home side at an Arsenal/Manchester City Goal Supremacy spread of 0.1-0.3 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.85-3.05. Yet considering the capacity to implode both sides have displayed this season, and the downright loopy nature of the Premier League at the moment, anything could happen.