Manchester City vs Arsenal

Arsene Wenger will most certainly be in a dilemma right now. His main player, Alexis Sanchez has shown his desire to join Manchester City. He almost did during the summer and his head has already been turned.

It is obviously a matter of when and not if he will play for Manchester City. So now, when the two clubs meet at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, should Wenger start a player who in a way now seems to see himself as  part of a rival club, against the said rivals? Can he guarantee Sanchez will give his best? Especially if he is shown love and given a very warm welcome by the home fans? Or should Wenger leave out arguably his best player in one of the season’s most important games?

Depending on the strategy he wants to employ, Wenger can afford to leave Sanchez out of the team. If he decides to go gung ho, and meet the high scoring Manchester City fire for fire, he can pair Sanchez with Alexandre Lacazette in front, but that could be suicidal because it means he would need to sacrifice a midfielder. But if Wenger decides to take up the more sensible option against City, he could set up his team defensively and hit Pep Guardiola’s boys on the counter. He used this strategy against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge earlier in the season and he got a valuable point. It could have been even better, with more luck, Arsenal could, and a lot of people believe, should have won the match.

If he goes defensive, Arsene then faces another dilemma. Who does he start and who does he leave on the bench? Sanchez, Lacazette or Olivier Giroud? By and large, with a proper strategy, Arsenal stand a good chance of defeating Manchester City or at the very least, get a draw. City are winning games and scoring loads of goals, but a fact few people don’t seem to notice is that they are letting in goals as well. Pep spent a lot of money on full backs, but his major weakness is still in the centre backs. John Stones is still not really experienced and gets easily rattled by aggressive marking and Otamendi is very error prone. If Arsenal can put up a tight and disciplined defensive display and use the pace of Welbeck and Walcott to counter, they are likely to leave Etihad Stadium with the three points.