Man City v Arsenal: betting verdict, odds, form, tactics & TV details

Premier League
Sky Sports Football and Main Event, 4.30pm Sunday

Match odds

3-10 Man City general
9-1 Arsenal bet365, Coral
11-2 draw Hills

Form

Manchester City suffered a damaging defeat at Newcastle on Tuesday, a result which leaves the champions five points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool.

The 2-1 loss was a huge surprise - Newcastle had been 17-1 for maximum points - and came almost out of the blue considering City had won eight on the spin by an aggregate 33-2 prior to their St James' Park shock.

However, City are usually bankers at the Etihad, winning 14 of their last 15 matches there and 17 of 19 overall with the two defeats coming against Lyon and Crystal Palace.

Arsenal's up-and-down season continues as they were knocked out of the FA Cup by Manchester United after easily beating Chelsea in the Premier League and the Gunners misfired for large parts of Tuesday's 2-1 victory over Cardiff. They failed to force a shot on target in the first half of their encounter with the Bluebirds.

Tactics

Mesut Ozil started his first match since Boxing Day against Cardiff, but is unlikely to be involved from the first whistle, even if Unai Emery persists with the diamond formation.

It will also be interesting to see whether Emery risks his front two - Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette - despite both scoring in midweek.

They have been paired together from the start in just five away matches this season and those were in fixtures against bottom-half opponents Cardiff, Newcastle, Crystal Palace, Brighton and West Ham. Even then Arsenal failed to win three of those games.

City's style is well set under Pep Guardiola, although he will surely want more intensity with just eight shots on target in total from the last two league matches against Huddersfield and Newcastle.

Injury news

Vincent Kompany remains doubtful for City, but left-back Benjamin Mendy should return having been close to a comeback in midweek.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding and Danny Welbeck remain sidelined, while there are doubts over Laurent Koscielny and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. New midfield signing Denis Suarez is available.

Verdict

City have scored at least twice in every home Premier League game this season, but they conceded in eight of their 12 top-flight Etihad encounters which suggests a high-scoring win for the champions against an Arsenal defence who continue to offer up opportunities. 3-1 City.

Key stats

Since the start of last season City have won all four meetings against Arsenal by an aggregate margin of 11-1.

City have scored first in each of their last three league defeats.

Arsenal have conceded ten goals in three away matches against the big six this season.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has netted 25 Premier League goals in 37 matches, beating Thierry Henry's club record of 42 games.

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