Arsenal v Manchester City: Premier League – live | Premier League

18 min: A brief pause with Ramsdale requiring treatment for his ankle. Happily for Arsenal it doesn’t seem particularly serious and the keeper is soon back up and jogging about.

16 min: … so having said that, City launch their first dangerous attack of the evening. Jorginho gets careless in the centre circle. City counter. Mahrez crosses deep from the right. Haaland gets ahead of Tomiyasu on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box, and whistles the ball through the six-yard box. Silva hadn’t gambled. Had he made a run forward, he’d have had a simple tap-in.

14 min: Arsenal are doing a good job of penning City back in their own half. They’re in control right now.

12 min: Xhaka curls in from the left. Ake ducks to bravely clear, and takes a kick upside the head from Nketiah for his trouble. A free kick, nothing more. Ake’s dive was unusually low and you couldn’t blame Nketiah for going for the ball. Happily, Ake is fine to continue.

11 min: Arsenal have enjoyed 60 percent of possession during these early exchanges.

10 min: It’s fair to say Silva is more accomplished in attack than defence, and here he is romping down the middle very dangerously. He looks for Grealish to his left but Tomiyasu reads the danger well to snuff out the attack. “Given how well Leno is performing for Fulham I think Drew is a bit harsh calling him deadweight,” writes Richard Hirst, “and I hope to be able to say the same about Soares soon.”

9 min: Silva tries to nick the ball off Saka again. This time he gets nowhere near it and takes a huge chunk of his man instead. A free kick is awarded this time. Much more of this and Silva could find himself in the referee’s notebook early doors.

7 min: Silva snaffles possession from a dozing Saka and sends Grealish off down the inside-left flank. Silva possibly clipped Saka there, actually, but play goes on. Grealish looks for Mahrez to his right, forcing Gabriel to poke behind for a corner. Nothing comes of the set piece, but that’s City into the game now.

5 min: Odegaard floats a dismal free kick into the mixer. De Bruyne should let it sail through to Ederson, but heads clear under no pressure. Odegaard has another chance to put something meaningful into the City box, only to hoick out of play to the left. Uncharacteristically witless from a usually whip-smart player.

4 min: Dias clips Nketiah out on the right. A free kick. Everyone lines up on the edge of the City box. Odegaard prepares to take.

3 min: City haven’t had much of a sniff yet. A rare instance of the boot being on the other foot.

2 min: Saka has a look down the left but can’t get an early shot away. Xhaka eventually skies one out for a goal kick. The home fans, already up for it, take it up a notch further.

Arteta and Pep hug, the teams take a knee against racism, then City get the ball rolling. What a racket the crowd are making!

The teams are out! One hell of an atmosphere at the Emirates, much as you’d expect for such an important game. Arsenal in their famous red shirts with white sleeves, City in their storied sky blue. “Speaking about how many players in the Arsenal lineup are new/young, I thought I’d offer this reminder for Arsenal fans of what what up until very recently was a realistic XI,” begins Drew from Canada. “Lining up in a 4-3-3: Leno; Soares, Luiz, Mustafi, Monreal; Torreira, Guendouzi, Ceballos; Aubameyang, Lacazette, Pepe. Has any other club pivoted so dramatically and successfully so fast? An entire XI of dead weight gone!” We’ll be off in a couple of minutes.

Arsenal’s recent record against Manchester City is not good, to say the least. Their last Premier League victory came in December 2015, when Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud scored their goals in a 2-1 win, Yaya Toure with a late consolation. Their last victory in any competition was a significant one, though: a 2-0 win in the 2020 FA Cup semi-final, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scoring both goals, the Gunners going on to secure the first piece of silverware of Mikel Arteta’s reign. In the Premier League of late, though, Manchester City have been in complete control. They’ve won the last ten meetings straight, home and away, to the cumulative tune of 26-3.

26-3!

That’s why they’re champions, huh. City also beat Arsenal in the FA Cup less than three weeks ago, so it’s fair to say the Gunners have a very domineering bogeyman to overcome tonight. It’s just fortunate so many of their players are young and/or new, so won’t have built up too much scar tissue during this sorry sequence. But still. Some test for the home side this evening all right.

Pep Guardiola talks to Amazon Prime. “Haaland trained yesterday and he was well … but we will see … every game is completely different … it is a brilliant stadium, a brilliant atmosphere … Arsenal have waited many years for this moment … Mikel has changed the club and the team … the last decade City was there but I didn’t see urgency [recently against Manchester United] … football changes so quick … this is a big opportunity … we have success doing things in a particular way so we will try to continue to do it.”

Mikel Arteta speaks to Amazon Prime. “Players get injuries and unfortunately Thomas [Partey] felt something in his back muscle … we brought Jorginho for this sort of occasion … Tomi deserves his chance … we must keep doing the same but better … we have dominated games … the game will have momentums and shifts … we need the people behind us to create a special atmosphere … City have so many options … we have to stick to who we are and do our best … there are no surprises, there were just possibilities … they have many options … we need people to turn this place absolutely mental and help us win the game.”

Arsenal make two changes from the starting XI sent out for the 1-1 draw with Brentford last weekend. Thomas Partey is injured, so Jorginho steps in to take his place. Takehiro Tomiyasu replaces Ben White, who drops to the bench.

Manchester City make just one change to the starting team named for the 3-1 win over Aston Villa last Sunday. Nathan Ake replaces Aymeric Laporte, who drops to the bench. Erling Haaland, forced off at half-time against Villa, is fit to start.

The teams

Preamble