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My Arsenal line-up vs Man City

By mac14 on December 29, 2021

Arsenal can tighten their grip on fourth spot with a positive result against Manchester City at the Emirates on Saturday. This is the line-up I’d like to see selected for the match…

The boss won’t be in the dug out after testing positive for covid but no doubt he’ll still pick the line-up. Arsenal’s game against Wolves on Tuesday was postponed so the players should be fresh meaning Arteta is under no pressure to make any changes following the impressive 5-0 win at Norwich last weekend.

Aaron Ramsdale will obviously keep his place in goal and it looks like Ben White will continue at right-back as Takehiro Tomiyasu is set to miss out after testing positive for covid. Our summer signing is comfortable at right-back and he was solid against Norwich in that position so hopefully he’ll not let us down on Saturday.

With White at right-back, Rob Holding should continue alongside Gabriel in the middle of the Arsenal defence. Holding has done well in the last two games so he should be in confident mood. Kieran Tierney continued his superb form with an excellent display against Norwich so I’d stick with him ahead of Nuno Tavares at left-back.

In midfield, Thomas Partey is available after it was agreed he could link-up with the Ghana squad after this weekend so he’ll play his final game before heading off to the AFCON. Granit Xhaka should partner Partey with Albert Sambi Lokonga on the bench.

Martin Odegaard was outstanding at Norwich on Sunday and has been consistently terrific in recent matches so he has to keep his place in the number ten role.

Gabriel Martinelli also continued his excellent run of form during the 5-0 win at Carrow Road so I think he deserves to keep his place in the Arsenal team. Obviously Bukayo Saka will start on the right flank and he’ll be high on confidence after his two-goal display at Norwich.

Unfortunately, that means Emile Smith Rowe misses out once again. The £34m-rated attacker has scored off the bench in each of his last four games but we just can’t drop Martinelli or Saka right now. ESR is a great option from the bench though.

Arsenal have shown in recent games that we don’t miss Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and I don’t see Arteta recalling him against Man City so Alexandre Lacazette should continue to lead the line up front.

Here is the side I hope we see: