Premier League: Man City v Arsenal preview, predictions and tips

Ladbrokes shares its preview, tips and predictions for Man City v Arsenal on Sunday afternoon in the Premier League.

It's only September, but one of the biggest and potentially most significant game in this season's Premier League takes place at the weekend, with Arsenal travelling up north to face the reigning champions, Man City.

There will be over 30 games left to play for each side coming out of this weekend, but neither side can really afford to lose to the other if they want to win the Premier League come May 2025, such is the competitive nature of England's top-flight.

So, with this being one of the biggest games of football for English fans in 2024, join Ladbrokes as our team of experts share their preview, tips and predictions for the big Man City v Arsenal game.

Arsenal are coming off the back of a very important result in the Premier League, as despite being without Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard and Mikel Merino, likely their first-choice midfield, the Gunners walked away from the North London Derby last weekend with a 1-0 win.

Mikel Arteta's side dug deep and waited for Tottenham to make a mistake, which happened with they failed to deal with a corner and allowed Gabriel to put the ball in the back of the net in the second half.

Rice is now back for the game against City, but Arteta will still be without Odegaard and Merino, so perhaps he'll see the game as another instance where he needs to set his Arsenal side up in a more defensive manner, such is the quality that City possess.

Man City are unbeaten in the Premier League so far this season, like Arsenal, but unlike their opponents on Sunday night, they've won each of their opening four games.

Erling Haaland is on top form, having scored nine goals in four games, and seems almost certain to end the season as the Golden Boot winner, which is a simply crazy thing to be writing in only September.

However, against Inter Milan in the Champions League this week, City weren't able to win a game for the first time this season, so Pep Guardiola and co will be eager to get back to winning ways at the weekend, and there's no better way to do that than against Arsenal.

Man City and Arsenal are the two favourites to win the Premier League come May 2025, ahead of Arne Slot's Liverpool, and that's been reflected in the match betting odds for their game at the weekend.

Man City are the odds-on favourites to leave the Etihad Stadium with all three points, with the bookies actually of the belief that a draw is a more likely outcome than an Arsenal win.

Why that's interesting is that, despite beating them to the Premier League title last season, City didn't beat Arsenal in either of their two clashes in the 2023/24 campaign, with the games ending in a draw and a home win for the Gunners.

It's mixed news for Arsenal with regards to the team news, as ahead of their Champions League clash with Atalanta tonight, new signing Riccardo Calafiori returned to training.

There were rumours that he was planned for a start against Tottenham last week, but after picking up an injury on international duty with Italy, Arteta opted for Jurrien Timber, who was arguably Man of the Match.

Declan Rice missed the derby after picking up a red card for two yellows against Brighton, but he's back and available for selection for the game against City, with the ex-West Ham midfielder expected to replace either Jorginho or Thomas Partey.

Bukayo Saka came off in the derby win, but he's in full training and unless he picks up a knock in the aforementioned European tie against Atalanta, he'll be fit enough to start against City.

Odegaard and Merino are still out though, with fears that neither man will be at Arteta's disposal for a good few weeks, with their injuries being more serious than first feared.

As for Man City though, things are also worrying for them, as star midfielder Kevin De Bruyne was taken off at half time in their game against Inter in the week. It remains to be seen whether he's fit enough to feature against Arsenal, with Guardiola set to be dealt a huge blow if he can't play.

Rodri started his first game of the season against the Italian giants, with the Spanish midfielder almost definitely set to feature from the off against Arsenal in the week.

As for long-term absentees, Nathan Ake and Oscar Bobb are both out of Sunday's game, but it's unclear whether Guardiola would have considered starting either even if they were fit.

Possible starting line-ups:

Man City - Ederson; Lewis, Dias, Stones, Gvardiol; Rodri, Bernardo, De Bruyne; Grealish, Savio, Haaland

Arsenal - Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber; Partey, Rice, Havertz; Saka, Trossard, Martinelli.

The bookies have a City win as the most likely outcome come Sunday afternoon, with there a 56% chance of that happening based on the odds.

However, we think each team will end up with a single point by the time the full time whistle blows on Sunday afternoon, as our pick is a draw between City and Arsenal.

Arsenal tend to set up in a more defensive manner against the bigger teams, and we expect their game against City this weekend to be quite similar to the one between the two sides in March, which was seen by many to be quite a slow, methodical fixture, agin somewhat to a chess match.

In fact, our prediction for the game is that it ends 0-0, just as the aforementioned fixture between the two sides did towards the end of the 23/24 season, with Arsenal and City almost cancelling each other out.

We expect Arsenal's midfield to be quite busy though, considering the fact that Odegaard and Merino are out, so we expect Rice to have to commit quite a few fouls, which is why we're tipping the England international to pick up yet another yellow card here.

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All odds and markets are correct as of the date of publication.