It’s so early in the Premier League season and yet Sunday’s visit to the Etihad already feels like a defining moment in this campaign.
The Gunners have been Manchester City’s closest rival over the last two years but have ultimately come up short, painfully so, during the run-ins.
This year, it feels like they need to put down a marker, to break through the glass ceiling that City represent, and to really inject some belief and momentum into their campaign.
Victory at the Etihad would be huge. The three points are the same as any other three points of course, but besting the champions on their own turf would at last put a chip in City’s veneer of invincibility.
This is a side, after all, that hasn’t lost a league game since February. Consider that for a moment. It’s insane.
Consider also how much stick we took after going to the Etihad last year and fighting our way to a point. We were roundly criticised for an apparent lack of ambition, crazy though it sounds. Striking at City’s heart would lay all that to rest.
With all that said, however, it would be foolish to let ourselves get carried away. Being goaded into playing open, attacking football, just because that suits City, is absolutely not in our interests. If beauty must be eschewed for practicality, so be it. It’s better to come away with a point than to come away with a hiding.
It’s worth bearing in mind also that we are lacking a little spark in the centre of our midfield. Without Mikel Merino and Martin Odegaard, we are currently finding square pegs for round holes and asking players to do a deeply unfamiliar job as well as a highly demanding one.
We’ll need to find a way to balance prudence with a willingness to get forward and hurt City, to show them the tide is turning.
That will be an enormous challenge for the manager.
I suspect few surprises on the day. Mikel is seldom one to stray far away from an idea he has in his mind and we have seen over the last few weeks what that means. We can expect Thomas Partey and Declan Rice in midfield, and we’ll more than likely see Kai Havertz drop into the middle of the park while Gabriel Jesus floats around up top.
Any chance of Ethan Nwaneri starting the match or Raheem Sterling taking up a spot on the left wing are, frankly, remote.
The lack of surprise in the squad, therefore, will mean the manager has to get his tactics spot on and, in a clash against Guardiola, that often carries a risk of over-thinking or ‘galaxy brain’ as some have dubbed it. There are no winners in that scenario.
Playing to our strengths is paramount. If we can get the ball wide quickly and effectively, we can hurt them. If our defence can stay organised and focussed, we can blunt them. We have the tools at our disposal but it is essential we’re at our best. We’ll need to be better than we were in midweek against Atalanta, for a certainty.
Despite the pressure and the build-up, however, I have to say I’m looking forward to it. This is as true a test as we’re likely to get this season. A chance to measure ourselves against the best. Let’s rise to the occasion again. Let’s break Guardiola’s grip at long last.
Blog on You Gunners 