After 4 rounds of the Premier League 2024-2025, Manchester City and Arsenal quickly recreated the race from last season, when they took the top 2 positions. Man City have 12 points from 4 wins, Arsenal are 2 points behind.
This Sunday (September 22), they will face each other directly at the Etihad Stadium, with the winning team having the top spot (Arsenal still need Newcastle to not win or not win too much).
At the Etihad last season, Arsenal drew 0-0, while at home at the Emirates, the three points remained with the "Gunners" thanks to a 1-0 victory. However, throughout the entire battle, Mikel Arteta and his students failed at the finish line.
Failure in that way is certainly a multiplier of disappointment, but it will also become a great motivation for Arsenal to be more determined this season. The question is, in the upcoming Super Sunday match, will Arteta choose to take risks to win or safety with the goal of bringing home 1 point?
There are many reasons to believe the Spaniard has a safe choice. The first comes from Arteta himself, through his changes.
Before the 2023-2024 season, Arteta lost all 6 times against Pep Guardiola's Man City. Last season, in addition to winning 4 points against Man City, Arsenal were the only team unbeaten in the confrontation between the teams in the "Big 6".
Arteta knows that tactical flexibility is important, in which Arsenal will play safe against strong opponents - defending very tightly against Man City last season, to the point where Guardiola jokingly said that he had to "kill someone" for his team to penetrate.
Second, the current Arsenal is strong enough to be tactically flexible in a match. That is, while having to defend tightly, they still possess factors that can change the state or eliminate opponents from set pieces.
Tottenham are the latest team to feel that. Arsenal were missing a number of key players and were out of possession (38%) but returned with three points from a corner kick. Maximum efficiency in each situation is the current Arsenal's strength.
They and Liverpool are the two teams that have conceded the fewest goals in the Premier League at the moment (1 goal). With a 0-0 draw with Atalanta in the Champions League in midweek, The Gunners have kept clean sheets in 4/5 matches played this season.
Meanwhile, Man City have kept just two clean sheets in five games. Even if Man City scored more goals, with Erling Haaland contributing 9/11 goals, experts are confident that there will be no trembling when Arsenal come to the Etihad.
Last season, they kept the Norwegian striker quiet in two confrontations. When Arteta becomes more practical with a squad that is not as highly rated as Man City, that is the factor that makes them more formidable.
That formidableness is shown through another statistic, when Arsenal are unbeaten in 11 away matches in the Premier League since the beginning of 2024, including 9 clean sheets (only 3 goals conceded).
In addition, they only let the home teams finish on target an average of 2 times/match. That is, they know how to control, block, and neutralize each area or the most dangerous strikers of the opponent.
Guardiola will study other attacking options, but it must be effective if he does not want to let the opponent get back points. Of course, a draw is not too bad because Man City still holds the top spot, but they will be criticized somewhere for being rated higher...
