City face resurgent Gunners as league challenge wavers

The Premier League’s congested Christmas fixture list can make or break a team’s title credentials, and Sunday will find two top sides with very contrasting dilemmas come head-to-head.

By Ken Rooney

The Premier League’s congested Christmas fixture list can make or break a team’s title credentials, and Sunday will find two top sides with very contrasting dilemmas come head-to-head.

After dominating for so long, Manchester City could find themselves in second place by the time they take on Arsenal - themselves a team very much on the up.

Largely dismissed after haemorrhaging their two best players in the transfer window, Arsenal have overcome their initial gloom to mount what could, albeit generously, be deemed a title challenge.

Dark horses for the title they may be, but it’s a long way from the non-runners they seemed destined to become just a few weeks ago.

The ever-improving Londoners have emerged from the shadow of Cesc Fabregas to rediscovered some of that team spirit they once thrived on, and are now fifth after winning seven of their last eight league matches.

What’s more, they have the excitement of a Champions League campaign to look forward to, unlike their rivals on Sunday.

Manchester City must not only try to pick themselves up from their exit from Europe’s VIP lounge, but also come to terms with losing that unbeaten run to Chelsea that made them the presumptive league champions for quite some time.

Their cause will not have been helped by yet another training-ground bust up last Thursday, again involving Mario Balotelli, who had to be dragged off Micah Richards after the England midfielder apparently told him to grow up.

Although dismissed by the club and Milner himself later, it may have been a worrying sign of things to come for the Italian manager. Keeping a squad of superstars happy is a relatively straightforward task if the team is winning - if it’s not, then players begin insisting that it’s obviously because they’re not contributing.

How Mancini must have wished for one of the league’s lower lights for his multi-million pound strike force to take out their frustration on with a traditional afternoon of target practice. Instead, the timing of this fixture against a team full of confidence could not have been worse.

Still, the Italian is making the best of it, outwardly at least.

"I think that at these moments we should be strong," said Mancini. "After one defeat, we can improve - we know what we can do, and in this moment we can become stronger.”

What they can do is not in doubt. We have marvelled at the performances of Sergio Aguero and David Silva in particular this season, but the pair seemed strangely out of sorts by their high standards for much of their recent defeat to Chelsea. Much will depend on if they can regain that spark in the final third of the pitch.

City will have to without Aleksandar Kolarov, who is out for a month with a groin injury, and the suspended Gael Clichy, whose reckless sending off against Chelsea shifted the balance of a tight match squarely in the Londoners’ favour.

A brief list of absentees it may be, but City could have done with all hands on deck to deal with the one-man attacking force that is Robin van Persie.

The Dutch ace has scored an astonishing 14 goals in his last 10 league games, leading many Arsenal fans to ponder if their side has effectively become a one-man team. They are of course completely correct in that belief, but many a league tilt have been built around one man in the past, and as long as the 28-year-old is fit and firing, Arsenal always look like scoring.

Scoring goals is not what will be troubling Arsene Wegner ahead of such a crucial challenge, however. The loss of all four of his recognised full-backs forced the Arsenal manager to field four centre-backs against Everton recently, and the same is likely again on Sunday.

Thomas Vermaelen, whose return was instrumental in Arsenal’s recent resurgence, was pushed out to the left. Although he performed admirably in the role, the lack of his steadying influence in the centre could prove fatal on Sunday.

Although they kept a clean sheet against the Toffees, facing the pacy and incisive City attackers is a far more daunting prospect.

Along with their defenders, Jack Wilshere, Lukasz Fabianski, Vito Mannone, Abou Diaby and Ryo Miyaichi complete Arsenal’s lengthy injury list.

City beat Arsenal 1-0 recently in their Carling Cup quarter-final, but given the relative lack of first-team stars on show that night, there is not much can be taken from that result.

The self-belief of City’s stars has certainly been tested of late, and they will need to summon all of their resolve to halt a snowballing Arsenal side.

Yet, given home advantage and the results the Mancini’s men have achieved so far, there simply isn’t enough evidence to believe that they will fall at this particular hurdle - however much their rivals may want to believe it.

Score Prediction: Manchester City 3 Arsenal 1.

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