Arsenal Tasked with Halting Unbeaten Man City

Arsenal are tasked with bringing Manchester City’s sensational start to the season to an end when they travel to the Etihad sunday. City’s flying start has seen them go unbeaten in their opening 16 games in all competitions and has sparked speculation over whether they could go through the entire campaign undefeated.

The last side to do so in the Premier League were their opponents this weekend, Arsenal in 2003/04, while the Gunners were also the last side to beat Pep Guardiola’s men, in the FA Cup semi-final in April.

City have won their last 14 games on the spin – a new club record – and scored 49 already this term, but Arsenal head to Manchester in fine form themselves.

Arsene Wenger’s men have lost just one of their last 13 – a run which has gone under the radar to some extent – and victory over the Premier League title favourites would certainly grab everyone’s attention.

Manchester City have no fresh injury concerns ahead of today’s clash. Captain Vincent Kompany remains on the sidelines with a calf injury, but manager Guardiola hopes to have him back in training after the international break. Left-back Benjamin Mendy is the only other senior absentee due to a long-term knee injury.

Arsenal will be hoping Sead Kolasinac overcomes a hip injury in time to feature at the Etihad. The Bosnia-Herzegovina international limped out of last weekend’s win over Swansea after scoring and laying on an assist, but Wenger expects him to be fit.

Manchester City have only won one of their last nine matches against Arsenal in all competitions (D4 L4), with that victory coming in this exact fixture last season.

Arsenal’s 2-0 victory at the Etihad in January 2015 remains the Gunners’ only away Premier League victory against the ‘big six’ since the start of the 2014/15 season (D7 L9).

Manchester City have won all nine of their Premier League games in which they’ve led this season, while Arsenal have won the most games (3) and points (9) from losing positions so far.

Manchester City are the third team in Premier League history to have won as many as 28 points from their first 10 games of the season. Chelsea (2005-06) and Manchester City (2011-12) also managed this, but had inferior GD to the current Manchester City effort. They both won the Premier League title at the end of those campaigns.

The Citizens have scored 20 goals in their last four home Premier League games this season – that’s more than 18 of the other 19 clubs in the division have netted in total in their opening 10 games of 2017-18.

The Gunners have won just 17 of the 45 away points available to them in 2017, winning five, drawing two and losing eight of their 15 games on the road.

Coming into this matchday, Leroy Sane has been involved in more goals than any other Premier League player this season (6 goals, 5 assists). The German scored both home and away against the Gunners in the Premier League last season.

Sergio Aguero has scored five goals in his last seven matches for Manchester City against Arsenal in all competitions.

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