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LONDON. – Another busy weekend of football all around the world lies in store, from Manchester City’s clash with Arsenal in the Premier League to the beginning of the Africa Cup of Nations. There’s little debate as to which of the weekend’s English Premier League games is the highlight – Manchester City against Arsenal is an encounter that is rarely dull with plenty of goals and talking points guaranteed.
It is also a fixture that usually carried great significance and tomorrow’s prime time clash is no exception.
In their nip-and-tuck title duel with Chelsea, City once again find themselves stripped of the initiative as two dropped points last weekend at Everton saw them fall two points behind.
Their response? Go out and spend £25 million on the player who scored the most English Premier League goals in 2014. It’s simple, really.
Of course, the denizens of the Etihad will have to wait a little while to see Wilfried Bony in blue, he’s off to play for Cote d’Ivoire at the African Cup of Nations.
But what is ominous for Chelsea and, well, everyone else, is that the defending champions now boast four of the league’s top five strikers from the calendar year of 2014 – Bony, Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure and Edin Dzeko.
In a season when Manuel Pellegrini has often not been able to fully deploy his attacking weapons because of injuries, there is a satisfaction at City that Bony is the final piece of the jigsaw. We doubt we’ll see James Milner playing as a makeshift striker again for some time.
Nonetheless, this match is a must-win for City, who could find themselves five points behind Chelsea by kick-off. The Blues travel to Bony’s former club, Swansea, today.
City are boosted by the return to full fitness of 19-goal Aguero, who managed to get through the last 25 minutes at Goodison Park last weekend following his knee ligament injury. He is likely to start tomorrow.
Pellegrini’s team are unbeaten in their last 12 Premier League matches, winning nine, and Arsenal’s away form remains patchy, with just four wins from 11 perhaps explaining why they’re not quite in their usual sanctuary of 4th.
Whatever the outcome, this should be entertaining – there have been 28 goals in the last seven meetings between these two at the Etihad, the most memorable being City’s 6-3 win back in December 2013. There have also been six red cards in the last nine matches between these two.
Interestingly, Pellegrini named Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez as the best player in England during an interview with AS this week and this suggests the Chilean is all-too-aware of the threat posed by his compatriot.
A strong case can certainly be made – Sanchez has been involved in more goals (19-12 goals and seven assists) than anyone else in the division. Pellegrini better have a good plan to stop him.
Arsène Wenger insists Arsenal have the maturity to “rectify” their record against their top-four rivals when they face Manchester City tomorrow.
The Gunners have only claimed one point from a possible 21 in Manchester, and have only won away at City once in seven attempts. But Wenger insists their past record will have no bearing on tomorrow’s game, and has backed his side to secure a positive result.
“You have many games when you know you will be judged on your potential,” he said. “Manchester City is one of them. Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool are other games that people have a close eye on to judge your potential.
“They have always had good teams but we have won at Manchester United, we have won at Manchester City. The history will not play a big part in this game. It’s the performance of the day that will play the biggest part and the only important part.
“I believe we have consistency. Last year, we did not win the championship only for that reason. We did not perform in the top games away from home. I believe we have the potential now to be much more stable and to show that we can do it.
“For many years (our record in the biggest games) was our strength and in the last two years it is true that it has been a weakness. I think we are mature enough now to rectify it.”
Wenger accepts City will pose a major attacking threat tomorrow, but believes his side have the quality to deal with them.
“From every big game you gain confidence when the result is good,” he said. “Let’s focus on going there and give ourselves a chance to win by putting a great performance in.
“We want to have a good balance between attacking and defending because we know that City attack very well, so it’s important that we do both sides of the game very well.”
Meanwhile, Manchester United’s 11-match unbeaten run was brought crashing to a halt last Sunday by Southampton and not it’s Louis van Gaal’s men looking anxiously over their shoulder in the race for fourth.
It had seemed like United were getting there. They were seldom convincing but had at least rediscovered the winning habit. But one defeat has inevitably led to more questions.
Many of them surround Radamel Falcao, whose relationship with Van Gaal seems to be damaged beyond repair.
The striker has not been at all convincing, scoring just three times and, unless there is a dramatic increase in his game time and general effectiveness, there is little point shelling out £43 million to keep him. Much better value is available elsewhere.
They have been endlessly compared but, as we stand ahead of United’s visit to Queens Park Rangers today Van Gaal has the same number of points (37) through 21 games as David Moyes had last season.
But it’s still not enough and, with the United treatment room now pretty much empty, the Dutchman has no excuses for United not challenging the top two.
They will start as strong favourites today despite QPR’s good home record and anything but a win is unthinkable. United are unbeaten in 16 matches against Rangers and have lost just once on their last 19 league visits to London.
With Robin van Persie expected to miss out with an ankle injury sustained against Southampton, Falcao could return to the starting line-up at Loftus Road – but Van Gaal does seem to place equal faith in youngster James Wilson.
Captain Wayne Rooney will fancy more gains against the west London club – the striker has three goals and two assists in his last four outings against them.
It’s just their home form keeping Harry Redknapp’s team afloat this season but even that seemed to desert them over Christmas, with draws against Swansea and Crystal Palace.
Although they are just a point from safety, signs of discord are evident, with last weekend’s defeat at Burnley leading to Richard Dunne remonstrating with QPR fans at the final whistle.
Little wonder, given they set an unwanted Premier League record of 10 defeats from 10 away games. But they’re a different proposition at home, so United be warned.
Fixtures (all 5pm unless otherwise stated)
Today: Aston Villa v Liverpool; Burnley v Crystal Palace; Leicester v Stoke; QPR v Manchester United; Swansea v Chelsea; Tottenham v Sunderland; Newcastle v Southampton (7:30pm)
Tomorrow: West Ham v Hull (3:30pm); Manchester City v Arsenal (6pm)
Monday: Everton v West Brom (10pm). – Soccernet.
Online Reporter