In-form Arsenal should beat boring City

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Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
04 Jan	7:45 PM	P	Manchester City (H)	0	0	Draw

Despite the big-game feel of our upcoming fixture against fellow title rivals Manchester City, I don't see this game as a do-or-die game that either side desperately needs to win.

Arsenal and City, two very different sides with different philosophies on and off the field, are very closely matched this season in the league table, and don't stand to gain much ground on the other with a win in this match. That doesn't stop the psychological boost being important, but with the way everyone's dropping points everywhere at the moment, either team could recover from a slip-up tomorrow, one feels.

However, four home defeats for Arsenal by January would not look at all good on paper. I feel like our form in general has improved, and therefore so should the home form, but like us City have been very good on the road this season, joint top with us with six away wins, conceding just nine goals in ten games. Arsenal, meanwhile, have conceded eleven goals in nine home games.

Unlike Arsenal, City don't score a lot of goals, which is why they've signed the excellent Edin Dzeko from Wolfsburg. Thankfully the deal won't be complete by tomorrow so he won't be able to do us any damage. Most of the threat will come from their midfield, with runners from deep like Yaya Touré posing a big goal threat. Thankfully David Silva is out injured, but Adam Johnson is another talented attacking midfielder and the kind of no-nonsense winger that Arsenal struggle against, but Roberto Mancini doesn't seem to rate him and didn't include him at all when we last met in October.

At Eastlands, Wenger played Denilson with Song and Fabregas, to make the midfield slightly more defence-minded. Song played mainly ahead of Denilson that day and scored a great goal, but he played very wel box-to-box against Chelsea, so hopefully Denilson won't be necessary. It's also worth noting that Jack Wilshere was suspended when we last played City so who knows if he might have been included anyway. We'll probably have to do more attacking at home so let's hope Wenger sticks with the trio of Wilshere, Song and Fabregas, which is working very well.

The 3-0 scoreline from the game in October perhaps flattered us a little. City were down to ten men from the 5th minute onwards and we still took a while to kill the game off, with Fabianski needed to make a few brilliant saves. Still, we will need to find that same kind of ruthlessness if we are to get anything tomorrow.

The players should finally have some big game beflief, and although I think there will be more important ones than this, I hope Wenger sticks to his Chelsea and Birmingham lineup and we win. And I feel confident.

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