It’s the match everyone’s been waiting for. Two of the top teams in the world of soccer this season are finally squaring off for the first time. Arsenal will travel to the Etihad tomorrow, January 27, for their fourth-round FA Cup tie.

In their last five games, Arsenal has only drawn once and has scored 12 goals to their four goals conceded. Manchester City has also scored 12 goals but have conceded six and lost two of their last five games.

More on their recent form, Manchester City had that electrifying comeback win over Tottenham last week. Overcoming a 2-0 deficit at half-time, then winning the match 4-2. While Arsenal just finished making a statement over the weekend when they got their revenge on the other Manchester team that beat them earlier in the season.

Things to Watch

Manchester City may seem like a juggernaut of a team when looking at them on paper, but they have been very inconsistent at the back as of late. Just going back to that Tottenham game, the two goals they conceded were both on them; it wasn’t anything special that Tottenham did. 

The first was a poor giveaway by Ederson that Kulesevski put away. Then the second was another giveaway by Rodri that Emerson scored off the rebound. If City has any chance of moving on, they have to get their back line right to deal with the in-form attack of the Gunners.

Speaking of the Arsenal attack, Eddie Nketiah has been a revelation for Mikel Arteta since the start of the new year. There were many questions about how much the loss of Gabriel Jesus would hurt this Arsenal team in the future, but it seems like Nketiah had all the answers. 

He has scored five goals over Arsenal’s last five games, and it looks like he’s gaining more and more confidence with every match. Arteta will have a wonderful problem on his hand when Jesus is fit enough to come back.

There’s also the topic of rotations. While Pep Guardiola seems to throw out a different variation of his starting eleven every other match, Arteta keeps his best eleven the same for all of their big games. It doesn’t come much bigger than a clash between the two best teams in the Premier League, but how fit will everyone be after that grueling match against Manchester United? 

Predictions

How does Arsenal handle the Erling Haaland problem? It seems like no one has really found the answer, as he’s already scored twenty-five goals in the league, only ten goals away from breaking the all-time single-season goal-scoring record. Although, no one knows where a goal from Arsenal might come from. Martin Ødegaard is their leading goal scorer with eight goals, Saka has seven, and Martinelli also has seven. 

The match is only a one-legged draw, so one of these teams will not be lifting the trophy this season. I see this closely resembling the game Arsenal had with Manchester United a few days ago, but I think City will put the brakes on the Arsenal train a bit.

City will win this game by a score of 2-1. I just can’t see City losing out on this trophy after just being eliminated from the Carabao Cup, being five points away from first in the Premier League with a game more than Arsenal, and their recent form in the Champions League does not give me hope that they’re a lock to win that.

Going trophy-less in a season where you brought in Haaland could be one of Pep’s biggest flops of his career.