(Football news) Should the reigning champions prevail at the Emirates Stadium, the gap to the Gunners in the top-flight table would be a mere three points—slightly believable in the wake of their wintertime plight.
All bets should have been placed on Arsenal being the ones to capitalize on any Manchester City calamities this season, but the Gunners now find themselves in a situation where they can more or less kiss the title goodbye without victory over Guardiola’s charges.
Arteta’s men have at least found their feet again in the Premier League after a slow start to 2025, most recently surviving a highly controversial Myles Lewis-Skelly red card—which has now been overturned—to trump Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 via a sweetly-struck Riccardo Calafiori winner.
No matter what transpires in Saturday’s matches, Arsenal should be safe in their second-placed ranking before bidding to extend their exceptional Emirates sequence; the Gunners are the only team in the top flight yet to lose a single Premier League home game in 2024-25.
It may surprise some to learn that Arsenal have picked up more points than any other team since gameweek 11—an unrivaled 29—and another three arrived in the Champions League in midweek, albeit not without a significant scare along the way against Girona.
After one-time Tottenham Hotspur man Arnaut Danjuma took advantage of some catastrophic goalkeeping from debutant Neto, Jorginho’s penalty and Ethan Nwaneri’s excellent finish propelled a much-changed Gunners team to a 2-1 success, one that ensured their automatic progression to the last 16.
While Arsenal can put their feet up—potentially in their favorite Dubai haven—for 10 days in February, Manchester City must navigate a blockbuster two-legged UCL playoff against none other than Real Madrid after just about managing to save their continental bacon.
Club Brugge were briefly on course to condemn Guardiola’s men to an embarrassing elimination from the competition on Wednesday night, but a second-half Citizens comeback ensured that the 2022-23 winners would not suffer the humiliation of a league-phase exit.
Before attempting to get the better of Carlo Ancelotti yet again, though, Guardiola faces up to his former protege with his Manchester City side finally starting to look like Manchester City again in the Premier League, if their six-match unbeaten run is anything to go by.
Also coming from a goal down to battle past Chelsea 3-1 last weekend, the Sky Blues sit in the top four for the time being, and little more needs to be said about their second-half-of-season form; they have lost just one of their last 40 Premier League matches taking place between January and the end of the season.
That being said, Arsenal were renowned for their scintillating surge in the second half of last season and come into Sunday’s main event unbeaten in their last three league games against the champions, whose dominion over the Gunners ended at the Emirates in 2023 courtesy of a deflected Gabriel Martinelli winner.
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