Mikel Arteta welcomes his former master to the Emirates Stadium for a Premier League title showdown as Arsenal entertain Man City in North London for the mouthwatering top-of-the-table contest on Wednesday. The Gunners are aiming to avoid a third consecutive league game without a victory, while the Citizens can go top of the table for the first time in months if they claim maximum points in the capital.

Very surprised about the odds to be honest, especially when Arsenal is playing at home this time. Yes, they have not even had draw with Man City in their last six head to head matches but I am taking in this match Arsenal to win or draw. I will clarify three main reasons of doing it:

[1] Arsenal was knocked out of the English FA Cup and now they have full domestic focus on the English Premier League. Some might say that now they have pressure on them to win at least something this season but I would say that there is not huge pressure of them because noone expected them to win league this season. They have fully concrentrate on the toughest league in the world, they schedule will not be that tight as any other team and I would say that’s their biggest advantage. While Manchester city has 4 matches in 10 day time (12.02-22.02), Arsenal has only two. There is no doubt that they are more ready for this than the away team.

[2] Manchester city poor performance while playing away. Manchester City looks increasingly stronger at home than away from home where they have struggled a lot this season. The Citizens have won only five out 10 contests on the road in the English Premier League 2022/23. Five of those games were against teams outside the top four. Manchester City has not beaten a top five team away from home this season with two losses and a draw in three games against Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, and Newcastle United. I would like to also touvh on off field issues Manchester City has been linked to last couple of weeks. It definitelly does not help the atmosphere inside the team and at some point it can start to affect the things on the field.

[3] Two Spanish coaches against each other. Arteta against Guardiola. Student against his former teacher. It always gets to the point when in this level the former assistant coach becomes the head coach and in these cases, in my opinion, they are always the favourite to win such a duels. They have studied their previous boss for many years by being next to him from match to match. This is exactly the case. If there is any man on this planet who knows every detail of the stule of Manchester City coach then it is current Arsenal coach – Arteta.

Anyway, we will experience some great football tonight which definitelly will be much more viewed than tonights Champions League matches. As I said I am predicting Arsenal to take points tonight.

本译文使用有道机器翻译，仅供参考：

米克尔·阿尔特塔欢迎他的前主人来到酋长球场，参加周三在北伦敦举行的英超冠军争夺战，届时阿森纳将迎战曼城。枪手的目标是避免联赛三连败，而曼城如果在首都全取3分，他们可以在几个月里首次登顶积分榜。

说实话，我对这种可能性感到非常惊讶，尤其是阿森纳这次在主场比赛。是的，他们在过去的六场面对面的比赛中甚至没有和曼城打平过，但我认为这场比赛阿森纳是赢是平。我将阐明这样做的三个主要原因:

阿森纳在英格兰足总杯被淘汰了，现在他们把全部注意力都放在了英超联赛上。有些人可能会说，他们现在有压力，至少要在本赛季赢得一些东西，但我想说的是，他们没有太大的压力，因为没有人期望他们在本赛季赢得联赛冠军。他们已经完全掌握了世界上最艰难的联赛，他们的赛程不会像其他球队那样紧张，我想说这是他们最大的优势。曼城在10天内(12.02-22.02)有4场比赛，阿森纳只有2场。毫无疑问，他们比客场球队准备得更充分。

曼城客场比赛表现糟糕。曼城在主场看起来比在客场越来越强，他们本赛季在客场打得很艰难。在2022/23赛季的英超联赛中，公民队在10场客场比赛中只赢了5场。其中五场比赛的对手不是前四名。曼城本赛季在客场对阵曼联、托特纳姆热刺和纽卡斯尔联的三场比赛中2负1平，没有击败过排名前五的球队。我也想谈谈过去几周与曼城联系在一起的场外问题。这肯定对球队内部的气氛没有帮助，在某种程度上，它会开始影响球场上的事情。

两个西班牙教练互相对抗。阿尔特塔对阵瓜迪奥拉。学生对抗他以前的老师。在这种情况下，前任助理教练成为主教练，在我看来，他们总是最有希望赢得这样的决斗。他们一场又一场的接近前任老板，研究他很多年了。事实正是如此。如果这个星球上有一个人知道曼城教练的每一个细节，那么这个人就是现任阿森纳教练阿尔特塔。

无论如何，今晚我们将体验一些精彩的足球比赛，这肯定会比今晚的欧冠比赛更受关注。就像我说的，我预测阿森纳今晚会拿分。