Arsenal and Manchester City looking to keep pace with Chelsea

The first fixture to be played after the international break in the English Premier League is arguably the biggest match of the whole weekend with Arsenal squaring up against title rivals Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium.

Both teams will be going into this game following on from very disappointing results in their previous games. Arsenal only managed to pick up a point on the road at newly promoted Leicester City and Manchester City fell to a shock defeat at home to Stoke City, having already beaten Liverpool at home this season. Manuel Pellegrini will not want to see a repeat of his team`s performance in the Community Shield match played earlier in the season, with Arsenal running out with a comfortable 3-0 victory at Wembley that day. There can be no doubt however, that the team Manchester City put out on Saturday will be much stronger than what played in the traditional season opener.

Despite having home advantage, Arsenal are priced at 2/1 with bet365 to win the match while the away team, Manchester City, are slight favourites at 6/4. Following that home defeat to Stoke City, Pellegrini knows that with Chelsea playing at home to Swansea, his team can not afford to drop any more points and fall further behind in the title race, even this early in the season. This could mean that Manchester City come in to the game not wanting to lose as opposed to win and a draw was played out in the corresponding fixture last season. ladbrokes have odds of 5/2 available for the draw and a repeat of last seasons 1-1 scoreline is on offer at 13/2 with BetVictor.

Arsenal conceded fewer goals at home last season than any other Premier League team, while Manchester City have managed to keep 4 clean sheets in their last 5 outings. Factor in the potential absentees from the match, including Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud for Arsenal and possibly Sergio Aguero and Stevan Jovetic for Manchester City and we could be in for another low scoring game at the Emirates, as was witnessed last season. SkyBet are offering 3/1 on there being under 1.5 goals in the match, with 19/20 available on their being under 2.5 at bet365.

Arsenal fans will be hoping that new signing Danny Welbeck can continue the goal scoring form he showed on Monday night for England and the striker is 7/1 with paddypower to open the scoring in this one. Arsenal`s other main attacking threat, Alexis Sanchez has 1 goal to his name so far this season and will enhance his reputation even further if he can find the back of the net against Manchester City. The Chilean is on offer at 15/2 with BetVictor to score first. Manchester City will not want a repeat of the blank drawn by their strikers in their previous match against Stoke and Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko is available at 7/1 with Coral to score first for the visitors. In what is sure to be a tight game, especially given the results achieved by both teams last time out, it could be a moment of magic from a player like Sanchez or Dzeko that wins the game for their team.

Go To bet365

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13/09/2014     © Frixo 2024