Manchester City V Arsenal pre-match thread.

[Chippy_boy]

Doesn't matter when you play Arsenal - they always play a great possession game. Our prime objective has to be, be patient, keep the ball, retain possession, control the game. Do that and we win imho.

Every time we give the ball away, we can expect to not get it back again for minutes and they will use it productively. So for me, Silva and Nasri are first on the team sheet as the best retainers of the ball. Nasri owes us a top performance against Arsenal as well.

Brilliant.

 

[Chippy_boy]

We've lost 2/3 of our best passers/ball retainers so we need to play a faster and aggressive game maybe like last season.

This.

Our normal gameplan has gone out of the window. The slow, patient, controlling build up play, creating 200 chances and taking 1 of them... just isn't going to work. With the players available, we'll keep losing the ball and we'll get dominated.

We are going to have to play a much more high-paced, in their faces, pressing game. Moving the ball around quickly and being very direct.

The sort of style Liverpool blitzed them with last season. It was all over in 15 minutes IIRC.

 

[sam-caddick]

Dzeko is a doubt according to Pellegrini, he will be assessed tomorrow by the doctor to determine if he is fit enough to play.

We might have to have a youngster on the bench on Sunday.

 

[Chippy_boy]

Dzeko is a doubt according to Pellegrini, he will be assessed tomorrow by the doctor to determine if he is fit enough to play.

We might have to have a youngster on the bench on Sunday.

He'd be rustier than a rusty thing left out in the rain for a year anyway, so not a big loss for me. I can't imagine he'd contribute much if he played if I'm honest.

 

[GX Blue]

Kompany
Yaya
Silva
Nasri
Aguero

We hardly ever have these 5 all in action at the same time.

Missing Yaya and Nasri will impact us a lot and make this match a lot harder than it would have been if they were available for selection.
Still think we could scrape it though, 2-1.

 

[robbieh]

For me Jovetic is not a striker, and while not protective of the ball like Nasri he is a lot more direct. It's his chance.

Play him in Nasri's position. With two Ferns being a bit more defensive than when Yaya is playing we can soak up Arsenal pressure then get the ball forward to Silva, Navas, Jovetic and Kun as soon as.

Lampard, Milner on the bench. Although if Edin is out we may need to keep Jovetic on the bench. In this case Milner starts.

 

[CrownPointBlue]

Over the course of the last two seasons how many times have Kun,Merlin,Vincent,Yaya & Samir started & completed a game together ??

 

[Chippy_boy]

If ever we needed a man of the match performance from little Merlin, this is it.

The three most crucial players for this game are Yaya, Merlin and Nasri imho and we are without 2 of them. But Merlin can run the show all on his own at times, like the 2nd half of the Liverpool away game last season when he was just utterly ridiculous.

Come on Merlin, we need you! (Again.)

 

[Chippy_boy]

Over the course of the last two seasons how many times have Kun,Merlin,Vincent,Yaya & Samir started & completed a game together ??

As a betting man, I'd go with never?

 

[Manchester_lalala]

Over the course of the last two seasons how many times have Kun,Merlin,Vincent,Yaya & Samir started & completed a game together ??

As a betting man, I'd go with never?

I think last season, them 5 only played togethor 10 times in the league.