Game of the week

Manchester City v Arsenal

Comment: 0 December 13th, 2011 by: admin
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With their pride punctured by a surprise loss to Chelsea over the weekend, league leaders Manchester City are out to regain their stride as the English Premier League’s most powerful and most intimidating squad.

Their next opportunity for redemption comes in the form of a home showdown against Arsenal.

For this match, Manchester City are risking not just their chance for emancipation, but also a winning home streak in the Premier League that last encountered a defeat late December last year.

For Arsenal, a club that has continually laboured to prove themselves a force to be reckoned with, currently hold a 3-game winning streak on the road.  Another win would not only extend this run, but give them a priceless morale boost as the squad that broke City’s year-long winning streak at the Etihad Stadium.

For either team, this match offers a defining moment: for one side, it is the chance to reinstate their place as the current leaders; for the other, it is an opportunity to rise above everyone’s expectations and perhaps gain some added respect.

Another City woe in the offing
By Wayne DeVille

This is the appropriate time for Arsenal to stretch Manchester City’s woes farther.

“Gun down City while the latter are in the doldrums’’ would be the right battle cry for Arsene Wenger’s side right now.

The Gunners should not mind facing City at the Etihad Stadium because the hosts are still shell-shocked by that recent loss to the Blues at Stamford Bridge that halted their winning streak at 15.

And even though City won their last two home stands, the Gunners are coming over buoyed by the fact that they have one away win and a fresh success at home.

Nailing three points at City’s expense would nudge the Gunners within striking distance and this is what Robin van Persie and company will try to achieve right at City’s home turf.

Redemption
By Jamie McClough

Let’s not make a big dramatic sequence about this match.  It would be nice for Arsenal, the little guys in this showdown, to somehow upturn expectations and beat the big bad City.

Problem is, it can’t be done.  Sure, people might argue that the last time they met at the Etihad Stadium the Gunners surprised City by defeating them.  But this is a different squad we’re seeing and this squad has more to prove than before.

For Arsene Wenger’s men, it is nothing more than a shot at glory and a hope that perhaps they could be taken a bit more seriously than presently.  But City have more at stake, which means they have more to lose.  Which means they will be fighting much harder than the visiting team that just wants to knock off the big guys.

City will win this, no question.  Arsenal could only hope for nothing more than a beating that is less brutal than humanly possible.

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