Rotation-shy Arsenal looking for change of the guard against Man City
However, especially for the Gunners the game represents a momentous opportunity to show their title credentials. Mikel Arteta’s team dropped points in their two most recent league games but are still three points ahead of Pep Guardiola’s side with a game in hand.
In terms of squad management however, the two have gone about achieving their league position two total different ways.
Solid Arsenal
One of the characteristics of the outstanding performances of Mikel Arteta’s squad has been their solid composition.
There were only 14 changes in the starting XI between Arsenal’s Premier League games this season, less than any other side, while Pep Guardiola has made 53 changes between consecutive starting line-ups of Man City, ranked 16th on this list. Guardiola is renowned for a rotation or two and with the array of quality players he has at his disposal, this is hardly a surprise.
But given the relative success of the four teams that have had the fewest line-up changes and the fact that for many teams, changes are often a result of injuries or fatigue, Arteta will be best pleased to see Arsenal top of the following table.
Arsenal have named the same starting XI in each of their last six Premier League games – they've never done so in seven consecutive matches in the competition before. The last team to do so was Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2018-19, starting with the same 11 players in each of their first nine appearances this campaign.
Eddie Nketiah
A forced change Arteta had to make was the replacement of former Citizen Gabriel Jesus, who is still recovering from an injury sustained during the World Cup.
The open spot as a striker is fulfilled by the 23-year-old Eddie Nketiah, who made his Premier League debut for the club back in March 2018 under Arsène Wenger. Although the striker has scored only four league goals in 769 minutes this campaign, his underlying stats are promising.
Eddie Nketiah has shown the ability to set himself in scoring positions, underlined by his 0.65 Expected Goals per 90 minutes, a league’s 5th-highest among players with at least 500 minutes this season.
At the moment his 0.47 goals per 90 minutes suggest he could be a bit more ruthless in front of goal, but his numbers prior to this season (10 PL goals from 9.5 xG) suggest he should be able to improve in that area. Nketiah also finds himself also among the top names when it comes to shots on target (6th with 1.5) and shots overall (7th with 3.5) per 90 minutes.
The Arsenal striker recorded not as many touches in the opposite box as his predecessor Gabriel Jesus (10.5 v 8.1) but finds himself above City striker and current campaign’s top goal scorer Erling Haaland (7.7). Apart from typical centre-forwards stats as the latter ones, he can make use of his pace and dribble skills.
Among strikers with 500+ minutes played this Premier League season, only Gabriel Jesus completed more dribbles on average than Nketiah (2.1 v 1.6). All in all, Nketiah has presented himself a worthy replacement of Jesus and he will be looking to prove more of that against Manchester City.
Erling Haaland
At Manchester City, the main focus has also been on the striker. Erling Haaland leads the league in terms of goals by a mile (25), but was subbed off in their last league game against Aston Villa and is still a doubt for the clash with the Gunners.
This would be a huge miss for Pep Guardiola because his team scored 52 goals in 1820 minutes with him on the pitch, with Haaland contributing directly to 29 of them, compared to only four goals in 332 minutes without the Norwegian. The drop off from 2.6 goals per 90 minutes with Haaland to 1.1 goals per 90 minutes without the Norwegian phenomenon is telling.
But Haaland himself is also not in his top shape against the big six clubs, except an outrageous performance of three goals and two assists in the win over Man United. Next to that game, he only scored once against Spurs on 19 January.
With just the four goals in eight appearances in all competitions since the turn of the year, the 22-year-old has even looked somewhat human in recent times.
When Manchester City and Arsenal clashed in the FA Cup last month, Erling Haaland was kept from scoring by the Gunners as well, but it wasn’t enough to prevent defeat as Manchester City emerged victorious (1-0).
At this point, surely Guardiola will settle for such a scenario, whereas Arteta would be happy to see the reverse happen.