With nothing left to play for but a top four finish, Manchester City and Arsenal lock horns on Sunday in the Premier League in their penultimate game of the campaign. Arsenal are back to finishing trophyless while City’s disastrous Premier Leauge campaign (they are yet to beat a side in the top six this season) sees them looking to secure Champions League football before the arrival of Pep Guardiola next season.
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The Gunners (67 points) currently have a three-point lead over City (64 points). However, both sides will be looking over their shoulder as Manchester United play catch-up. The Red Devils are on 60 points but have a game in hand.
Both sides will look to play their strongest squads at the Etihad. But which players have performed well over the course of the season to get into a combined XI?
Note: Only available players have been picked in a 4-2-3-1 formation
Goalkeeper – Petr Cech
“He will save them 12 or 15 points a season,” said John Terry when Cech signed for Arsenal last summer. How right he turned out to be.
The Gunners’ only signing of the summer slotted in and showed fans exactly what the club lacked after the departure of Jens Lehmann. Goalkeepers have come and gone since the giant German left and all of them failed to impress on a consistent basis.
The Czech international’s vast Premier League experience has seen him marshal his back line with authority and saved the team on countless occasions when the back line was breached. 12 to 15 points would actually be an understatement.
Both Cech and City’s Joe Hart have kept 15 clean sheets each. But Cech has conceded lesser goals and also made more saves than the English goalkeeper in spite of playing lesser minutes.
Defence
There’s no debate when it comes to the full-backs. Man City’s full-backs have been rotated every now and then and none of them have been consistent over the season. Their regular full-backs – former Arsenal man Bacary Sagna and Aleksandar Kolarov – have not been at their best.
Meanwhile, Nacho Monreal and Hector Bellerin have had stellar seasons on the flanks. Bellerin’s performances have seen him being voted into the PFA Team of the Year while Monreal’s numbers go through the roof when compared to the other three.
| Bellerin | Monreal | Sagna | Kolarov | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interceptions | 59 | 97 | 47 | 46 |
| Tackles Won | 42 | 55 | 30 | 25 |
| Blocks | 7 | 11 | 7 | 8 |
| Assists | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Take-Ons | 57 | 15 | 5 | 24 |
City have looked solid at the back only when Vincent Kompany has played, Unfortunately for the Sky Blues, watching Kompany limp off the pitch early in the game has now become a regular occurrence. Their inspirational captain has had a season to forget, even limping off with a muscle injury against Real Madrid.
His opposite number at Arsenal has also shown signs of ageing. Per Mertesacker may be just 31 years old but has had issues with injuries. The last game saw him signalling the bench after clutching his leg and he had to come off.
The only two defenders who have been consistent, especially when paired with the right partner, are Laurent Koscielny and Nicolas Otamendi. Arsenal’s French defender is not one to go in for tackles but his last-man tackles pay off more often than not.
On the other hand, Otamendi is a strong tackler and reads the game well to make interceptions just like Koscielny does. Both defenders are strong in the air and have won close to 65% of all aerial duels.
Midfield
The base of the midfield for this combined XI sees Manchester City’s Fernandinho as one of two midfield pivots. The Brazilian has been a regular in the starting lineup compared to last season and the box-to-box midfielder has been a crucial link between defence and attack.
Strong in the air and with the ability close down passing channels, Fernandinho has stepped up in a season where Yaya Toure has sleepwalked through most games.
Arsenal’s only outfield signing Mohamed Elneny did not come into the squad until the January transfer window but he hasn’t looked back after cementing his place in the starting lineup. After benching an inconsistent Francis Coquelin, the Egyptian midfielder’s mobility has been instrumental to reviving Arsenal’s stagnant midfield in the second half of the season.
Always on the move and looking around for teammates almost every second, his positioning and runs have seen the ball zip around the field while his stamina has seen him cover a lot of ground, especially in winning the ball back. With a mean shot on him, as Barcelona saw in the Champions League, he is an asset that can only improve at the Emirates.
There’s only one playmaker who deserves his spot behind the striker in this lineup and that is Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil. The German midfielder broke Frank Lampard’ s record for most chances created in a Premier League season and is now looking to overhaul Thierry Henry’s record of 20 assists in a single season.
Ozil is on 18 assists but has slowed down since January. However, a closer look at the numbers show that it is his teammates who have gone missing rather than the German World Cup winner.
Attack
On the left, we go with Arsenal forward Alexis Sanchez. In spite of being sidelined for a couple of months due to injury and not exactly hitting the marks he did last year, he still has 12 goals and 4 assists to show for his efforts.
The Chilean has not had a break since the start of the 2013/14 season thanks to the World Cup and Copa America in successive summers and the injury did not come as a shock. But he has shaken it off and lightened up the Arsenal attack with Olivier Giroud struggling to score as he suffers a major goal drought.
Kevin De Bruyne comfortably takes the right forward slot. No summer signing has impressed in attack as much as the £55m signing from Wolfsburg. With the versatility to play across midfield, the Belgian has a return of six goals and nine assists.
The Sky Blues missed him dearly when a knee injury saw him sidelined for six weeks. On his return, City even qualified for the Champions League semi-finals.
Jesus Navas has been frustrating to watch this season on the right with no direction or purpose to his play while Arsenal have not had a regular player on the right. Although Joel Campbell has impressed on the occasions he has started, one must wonder why Wenger does not play him more often.
Up front, the decision is unanimous. Olivier Giroud has not scored in the Premier League since a brace against Liverpool in January. Danny Welbeck has been eased back into the side after an injury and is yet to hit his stride and start regularly.
Which leaves Sergio Aguero as the only real striker to lead the line. The Argentina international will be looking to defend his Premier League Golden Boot too and is two goals behind Harry Kane’s 25 goals this season. While he has struggled in the Champions League, he has not lost his touch in the EPL; scoring goals on a regular basis – including a hat-trick against a resurgent Chelsea in April.
Substitutes: Hart, Sagna, Gabriel, Fernando, Ramsey, Sterling, Welbeck
