Kick-off: 16:30, 08/10/2023
Stadium: Emirates
TV: Sky Sports
The highlight of the weekend involves a clash between last season’s best two sides in the Premier League.
Arsenal looked like potential champions for much of the campaign but faltered in the final furlongs as City wrapped up a third successive title in a treble-winning season.
Pep Guardiola’s side have won the last 12 Premier League encounters with the Gunners so an away win at 7/5 is our first Arsenal vs Man City prediction.
Star men could be missing
Both teams had mixed fortunes in the Champions League during the week but Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat by Lens was further compounded by an injury to Bukayo Saka, who limped off for the third successive game.
Manager Mikel Arteta was unremorseful about his decision to put the England winger in the starting line-up, with Sunday’s game so close at hand.
He said: “He tried to backheel a ball in the first half and felt something muscular. He felt uncomfortable to carry on so we had to take him off.
“We don’t know anything more. It was big enough not to allow him to continue to play the game and that’s a worry for us.”
City, meanwhile, left it late to post a second successive victory in the group stage of the Champions League.
Substitute Julian Alvarez changed the course of the game with a brilliant finish before setting up Jeremy Doku for the clincher in a 3-1 victory at RB Leipzig.
Rodri started Wednesday’s win in Germany but the Spain midfielder remains suspended for the trip to north London, so both sides potentially could be without key players this weekend.
City’s perfect start to the league season ended with a shock 2-1 defeat at Wolves on Saturday, three days after they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Newcastle, so avoiding a third successive defeat was important.
Despite the absence of Rodri and the injured Kevin De Bruyne, City can rise to the occasion by ending Arsenal’s unbeaten start with a victory and goals at both ends at 16/5, which has been the case in the last three Premier League meetings, in our Arsenal vs Man City betting tips.
Shield success gives Gunners hope
Arsenal are not without hope of ending their drought against City having beaten their title rivals in a penalty shoot-out in the Community Shield at the start of August.
Kai Havertz missed a couple of first-half chances but it was Cole Palmer, now with Chelsea, that gave City a 77th-minute lead with a brilliant curling effort only for Leandro Trossard to level with a deflected strike deep into stoppage time.
Rodri and De Bruyne played in that game, so Arteta will be optimistic his side can finally get one over City in the Premier League.
Arsenal have scored and conceded in all four home games this season and have netted at least twice in five matches in all competitions, so both teams to score and either teams to win at 7/5 certainly looks a possibility bearing in mind these sides were comfortably the top scorers in the Premier League last season,
Looking at the Arsenal vs Man City odds, the Gunners are 7/5 to find the net twice and both teams to score in the first half is 29/10.
That was the case in Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Tottenham and 3-1 victory over Manchester United and in last season’s corresponding fixture.
For those looking at bigger odds, the match to be 1-1 at half-time is available at 6/1 as it was last season and in the above two games.
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