Manchester City travel to London during the first weekend of the Premier League in order to take on Unai Emery’s Arsenal this Sunday at the Emirates.
Man City as a team have done very little business during the summer transfer window but they have managed to bring in Riyad Mahrez from Leicester City which is nothing short of a wonderful buy.
But in all fairness, Guardiola’s side last season looked perfect and there is very little that one would want to rectify in that squad. So this season it will be more about keeping that momentum in order to try and defend their Premier League crown.
Man City Team News:
Ederson will be back in front of goal despite Claudio Bravo playing as the No 1 keeper during pre-season.
Benjamin Mendy missed a large part of the previous season due to an injury but still went on to win the World Cup with France last month. While most of the World Cup players were out on holiday, Mendy returned back to training early which means he is fresh and will most certainly start at left-back on Sunday.
John Stones and Vincent Kompany would have been the first choice central defensive pairing for Pep Guardiola for such a high profile game but given that both these players played in the semi-finals of the tournament, the manager is expected to give them a rest and start the match with Laporte and Nicolas Otamendi.
Riyad Mahrez is also expected to make his debut on the right wing while the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling should start on the bench.
Leroy Sane did not make it to Germany’s World Cup squad but he is more or less a guaranteed starter under Pep Guardiola.
While both Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus are available for selection we expect Pep Guardiola to start with the Argentine as the lone striker.
Arsenal vs Man City odds:
Most of the betting companies have put Manchester City as the favourites to win the encounter with the likes of bet365, Ladbrokes and Betfair all have odd of a 19/20 in favour of Pep Guardiola’s side.
PaddyPower have 11/4 odds on an Arsenal win while Skybet have a 13/5 odd on the exact same result.
Man City’s predicted line-up:
Goalkeeper: Ederson
Defence: Walker, Otamendi, Laporte, Mendy
Midfield: Fernandinho, B Silva, D Silva
Attack: Mahrez, Sane, Aguero
Read: Arsenal’s predicted line-up vs Man City.
Read: ‘These’ two clubs will have a Rangers vs Celtic type battle in the Premier League according to Paul Merson.
Read: Former Man United legend predicts who will win the Premier League and why his former team will fail badly this season.
Read: Former Premier League stars reveals the top four for the new season and both the predictions have one thing in common.
Read: Premier League legend reveals ‘which’ club has done the worst business in the summer but they still seem to be perfect.
