Finally at home, Arsenal host Manchester at the Emirates

Trustees Mikel Arteta's will finally perform in front of their own fans at the Emirates Stadium. After a series of four away games in four different competitions, this time a home game is also on the schedule. And not just any home game. Arsenal welcome Manchester United to north London, with Michael Carrick now in charge. Arsenal were more successful in their first meeting this season, taking the closest possible victory from Old Trafford despite a less than stellar performance. Now the situation is completely different than at the beginning of the season, but the goal remains the same, three points. Arsenal, who according to some sources have a full squad for the first time this season, will go into the game as clear favourites, but that may not mean anything just yet. It is imperative that Arsenal approach the game with 100% concentration and commitment. Will the Gunners manage to win again after two league draws? Let's take a look at all the important things ahead of Sunday's Premier League round of thirty-three.

Form

Although Sunday night will be at the Emirates Stadium to see the clash of two English giants, Arsenal and Manchester United, in terms of form, the two teams cannot be compared. Arsenal have been very consistent despite recent league wobbles, which is definitely not the case with Manchester. Recent results even forced United's management to take the crucial step of sacking manager Ruben Amorim. So where do these traditional rivals stand with their current form?

Arsenal

In my last blog and actually in others I've written recently I've discussed Arsenal's form in some detail. Now I will take it from a slightly different end and a little more briefly, so that I do not keep repeating the same ideas.

Arsenal are generally in very decent form in all competitions. The only competition where he has failed to win on the last two occasions is the Premier League, where he has only drawn twice in a row. First came the points sharing with Liverpool and then with Nottingham. Nevertheless, Arsenal's performances and results can be considered above standard. When I look at the Gunners' performance this year in a wider context, I could hardly be more pleased. Sure, the losses to Liverpool and then Nottingham in particular must have hurt all Arsenal supporters, but overall the view of the results is positive. However, there is now a need to respond to previous losses in the Premier League. Although Mikel Arteta's charges are not expecting an easy match, they should confirm their position at the top with a victory. Manchester United is unpredictable, as they proved in the last round, in which they surprisingly easily outplayed their city rival and won comfortably 2-0. But I'll get to that later today.

I'll just add that in the last five games Arsenal have won three wins and two draws. Considering that out of these five games. played four times outdoors and stadiums like Stamford Bridge and San Siro, I think his record is impressive..

Manchester United

Manchester United also remains behind expectations this season. Although the team from Old Trafford brought in some sound reinforcements in the summer and some progress (at least in the table position) can be seen in the team, it is still far from ideal. Despite a relatively respectable fifth place in the Premier League table, Manchester still trails the top teams. Especially in consistency. The fact that the loss of the lead is greater than the lead on seventeenth-placed Nottingham speaks for itself. As far as other competitions go, United have not performed at all in Europe this year. In the EFL Cup they were ignominiously eliminated by Grimsby, who are only in the fifth highest competition, and they were knocked out of the FA Cup in the fourth round two weeks ago by Brighton.

As far as current form is concerned, Manchester's record in the last five games is as follows. Three draws, a defeat and a win, in that order. Four of these matches were played in the Premier League, the remaining one (lost) in the FA Cup. If I take into account only the league competition, the statistics of Michael Carrick's charges is a bit more positive (two wins and three draws), but definitely not the one they would like to see at Old Trafford. Manchester's current form is slightly below average, if I were to be more moderate in my assessment, it could be described as average. On the other hand, games against Wolverhampton, Leeds and Burnley, teams from the bottom of the table, should be much better for a team like Manchester United. At least in terms of results.

Team and expected line-up

News from Mikel Arteta's pre-match press conference the return of defenders Riccardo Calafiori and Piero Hincapié into full training are sure to please many an Arsenal fan. But what does this mean in terms of the starting line-up? Will the Spanish manager include both defenders in the matchday squad? Is it possible that we could see at least one of them in the starting eleven? If so, who will drop out of the lineup and who will be left out of the nomination? The Gunners coaching staff has more than enough questions to address. But after a long time it is a „pleasant“ worry.

Expected line-up

There's probably no point in doubting that Mikel Arteta will send the strongest possible line-up to the match against the Red Devils. There are several question marks in the line-up, the biggest being the left (and therefore right) wing-back and the top striker.

In the game against Inter, the Spanish manager showed that he has no problem sending a player who returned after a relatively long period of time from sickness into the starting line-up for a difficult match. When Cristhian Mosquera was able to start at the San Siro, why Riccardo Calafiori could not play against Manchester United? Personally, I am inclined to think that we will see the Italian national team player on the pitch from the first minute. If that's really the case, then we'll have Jurriën Timber will start on the right side of defence instead of Ben White.

So who will lead Arsenal's attack? Although Gabriel Jesus gave a great performance in Tuesday's Champions League match, crowned by two accurate shots, so I think this time we will see Viktor Gyökers on the pitch from the first minute. Mikel Arteta is certainly not decided by who is more deserving of a place, but by who is more suited to a given match. My feeling is that this time the choice will fall on Gyökers. Back to the performances of the two forwards in the last game. From an offensive point of view, Arsenal's game against Inter was very fruitful. Apart from Gabriel Jesus scoring twice, the Swedish striker, who came on for the last fifteen minutes of the game, added one more goal. Could it be that the healthy competition in the team is finally starting to bear fruit? I believe that both players will continue their shooting form!

The rest of the line-up will not offer any more surprises. Personally, I'd like to see him start from the first minute Eberechi Eze, but I don't think it's gonna happen. Team captain Martin Ødegaard will start at number ten. There's not much to discuss with the rest of the starting eleven.

Absences

Now Mikel Arteta is again in a situation where his squad is practically empty, so he will have to leave some players out of the nomination. If my guess is correct, he won't make the squad. Chtistian Nørgaard and Myles Lewis-Skelly. I believe that the Spanish manager will make up for the time on the pitch in Wednesday's Champions League game, but that's for another time. Also Ethan Nwaneri he's not gonna make it into the game. And not just the one against Manchester. The English youngster has gone on a six-month loan to Marseille. Surprisingly enough, I don't expect him to be in the squad. Kai Havertz. The Spanish manager has enough offensive players at his disposal at the moment. In addition, he said that the German player's workload needs to be carefully distributed, and therefore his inclusion in the nomination does not seem likely in this situation. It is most likely that the youngster will continue to be missing Max Dowman, who's recovering from an ankle injury.

About the opponent

Manchester United, one of the biggest not only English but also European teams in the world of football. But recent years have only seen United a blurred memory of the glory days. And this season is no exception. I've written more than enough about United's table position, performances and results today, so I'll now move on to the traditional player line-up and quickly I'll comment on the change of manager, which I also mentioned in my blog.

I'll start with a relatively fresh change on the bench. Manchester City management has run out of patience with manager Ruben Amorim and after the draw at Elland Road, they decided to take the crucial step of removing the Portuguese manager from his position. For the next two games, he was temporarily in charge of the bench Darren Fletcher. The derby against the Cityzens already led Michael Carrick, who has signed a contract in Manchester until the end of this season. We will see how Manchester will fare in the second half of the season.

Now to the squad itself, which has a lot of quality players. The biggest star of Manchester is undoubtedly the captain Bruno Fernandes, but there are other stars on the team, such as Matthijs de Light, Diogo Dalot or Casemiro. From the summer reinforcements I would like to highlight a couple Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha. Personally, I'm a big fan of both players and before the transfer window started I wanted them both to go to Arsenal. That didn't happen, and now this Cameroonian-Brazilian duo are dragging United's offensive line. An even more infamous name in connection with Arsenal was pre-season Benjamin Shesko, who was reportedly Mikel Arteta's dream signing. However, the Slovenian footballer hasn't adapted much at Old Trafford so far and remains behind expectations compared to his offensive colleagues.

Arsenal footprint

Finally, I'll mention one more player, which is Ayden Heaven. I'm sure I've written about him in the past, but in case some of you don't know his name, he's a player who headed to Manchester United from Arsenal. Along with him moving to Manchester from Arsenal's academy Chidozie Obi, but he's not getting that much space in the United midfield yet.

Match

Arsenal and Manchester United's first game in the current Premier League season, both teams played each other in the first round at Old Trafford, ended with the closest possible victory for Arsenal. Despite gaining three points, Arsenal were the worse team in the match. Can we expect a similar performance in the return leg in north London? I don't think so. Firstly, a long time has passed since the start of the season and the teams have played a lot of games. Now the season is in full swing and factors such as form, injury and home environment will play a major role. All three of these factors should play in Arsenal's favour. Manchester United, despite a big derby win against Manchester City, is not in the best of moods. The recent league results are certainly not good and the bold letters have been used to call off Ruben Amorim. To make matters worse, the FA Cup relegation followed. Putting it all together, the situation in the red part of Manchester is far from ideal.

the match itself should be directed by the home players. Territorial superiority, superiority in ball possession and superiority in the number of chances and finishes, which will hopefully be reflected in the final score. Despite inconsistent performances, the Red Devils have shown several times this season that they can measure up to the best teams. The victories against Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle and Manchester City are clear proof. Mikel Arteta's charges are not expecting an easy match and although I believe Arsenal will go for three points again after two league draws, it won't be for free. I predict Arsenal to win 2:1.

Next match

The Gunners' next game will be Champions League match, which will close out a league season in which Arsenal have not lost a point. Will Mikel Arteta's men manage to win the last game of the regular season? They will be in the way Emirates Stadium will face the big outsider, Kairat Almaty. The first team's match with the last team is scheduled for Wednesday 28 Jan 2026 from 21:00 (CET).

See you next time, I'll look forward to it!

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