Can City disarm Gunners title charge

The first game between these two teams came way back on November 11th 1893 when Woolwich Arsenal took on and beat Ardwick. The return League fixture was the same and score and Ardwick struggled. That was when both clubs were in Division Two and the first game between the two in the top flight happened eleven years later as again Woolwich Arsenal again beat, the now named City, 1-0.

 

In fact the history between these two in the League shows Arsenal on top winning just over half all the meetings and just under double the total wins that City have enjoyed. That said, Manchester City have knocked Arsenal out of two of the last three Carling Cup competitions at the Quarter Final stage and who can forget that 4-2 win at home in September 2009 when Richards, Bellamy, Adebayor and SWP all got on the scoresheet for City. 

The last League home game against Arsenal was due to be a tribute to the recently departed Malcolm Allison but an early sending off for Boyata meant that City would have a mountain to climb. Despite the final score being a 3-0 win for the visitors City did make a contest of it. After going down 1-0 with twenty minutes on the clock from a now City Nasri strike they held on until just over twenty minutes left when Song doubled the Gunners lead with Bedtner adding the third with seconds remaining. 

Almost 117 years to the day of this game City (Ardwick) demolished their opposition 4-1, Billy Meredith scored twice that day. 

On October 1975 City won 3-2 with Rodney Marsh scoring his last goal in a City shirt and left before City completed the League double over the Londoners, with a 3-1 win following at our ground. 

In our relegation season of 2000/01 we had one of our worst fixtures with Arsenal. We lost both games that season by a total of nine goals and scored none in reply. We had been in the second tier the previous season and found ourselves back there the next. 

Sunday

With Manchester United now only two points behind City and playing earlier in the day it will be important for City to focus on their own game come Sunday afternoon. Two of City’s closest rivals play Sunday with QPR hosting United and Tottenham facing Sunderland. Liverpool are on the outskirts of a title drive this season and being ten points behind the second place team a title is not out of the question but an exceptional run has to start really soon. 

As far as City goes, Micah Richards should be back in the team on Sunday to face Arsenal and that has to be good news for Mancini who spent the last week or two trying to decide between an unfit Zabaletta or a inexperienced Savic to take that right back role. 

The last five home games in all competitions against Arsenal have seen City come out on top three times, scoring eleven goals and conceding eight. A repeat of the Cup game earlier this season would be more than welcomed for Mancini who is unhappy with ‘soft’ goals being conceded and the lack of clean sheets gained so far this season. Another defeat for either club could be devastating, for Arsenal it may mean the end of their title run. For City it could signal a slip in form and not what Mancini would want to see as he heads into what will be a busy January for City.  

Predicted team to face Arsenal: Hart, Richards, Kompany, Toure(K), Lescott, Toure(Y), DeJong, Nasri, Milner, Silva, Dzeko.