This really *is* a final for Arsenal – and they absolutely have to beat Manchester City this time

Arsenal are apparently too emotional and treat every game like a final. The thing is, that really has to be the case on Sunday – and they must beat Man City.

For a change, Sky’s ‘Super Sunday’ package will live up to the mega hype this weekend when champions Manchester City travel to the Emirates to face off against their closest challengers from last season and potentially this time around, Arsenal, in a game that the Gunners simply must win.

Neither side enter the match in the finest form or health, with both suffering defeats and casualties in recent weeks, which makes it even more unpredictable and exciting.

Arsenal lost in Lens midweek but of far greater concern was the sight of Bukayo Saka hobbling off with an apparent hamstring injury. Mikel Arteta said he had no regrets about picking his star forward despite him carrying injuries from previous games, being unable to complete the prior two.

Saving face? It seemed a serious misjudgement given Arsenal should have little difficulty qualifying from their Champions League group.

There is still a chance Saka will extend his incredible run of consecutive league starts (87 and counting) on Sunday but one player who will not feature is fellow wide man, Gabriel Martinelli, who has been out of action since the win at Everton nearly three week ago.

Thomas Partey made a return to the matchday squad in France and will probably come into the line-up to beef up the Gunners’ midfield, almost certainly at the expense of Kai Havertz, who continues to look a bizarre signing and someone just not suited to what is likely to be a high-intensity fixture.

The midfield, now being marshalled by their de facto skipper Declan Rice, could be the difference for Arsenal given the absence of City’s best two players in that position, Kevin De Bruyne (injured in the first league game of the season) and Rodri (suspended after a red card against Nottingham Forest).

While Erling Haaland and KDB can lay claim to being City’s best players overall, Rodri is arguably their most important. A metronomic and ever-reliable presence at the heart of the side, there is no-one else like him in Pep Guardiola‘s squad, whereas their attacking options are bountiful, and they’ll never struggle to score goals.

Pep, once again, pulled a peculiar formation and setup out of the hat in the 3-1 win at Leipzig, and it appears that control will be the name of the game for Sunday. Expect John Stones and Mateo Kovacic to form the base of the midfield with Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish ahead providing outlets, as well as ball retention.

City’s win in Germany – which saw Abu Dhabi face off against Red Bull in another bleak representation of what football has become – ended an extremely rare losing streak, which saw them crash out of the Carabao Cup at Newcastle and suffer a shock loss at Wolves. Matheus Nunes’ hooking at half time, and performance against the club he went on strike to force an exit from this summer, should indicate his role in North London this weekend.

That loss at Molineux saw a collective sigh of relief across the league, particularly at Arsenal, who found themselves four points off after just six games. It felt even more ominous with City’s propensity to grow into seasons after starting relatively slow.

The Invincibles’ (both the 2003-04 Gunners and 1888-89 Preston North End vintages) remain safe for another season, but if Arsenal are to end their 20-year wait for a title since that Wenger/Henry dream team, a win on Sunday is an absolute must for two main reasons.

As mentioned, City grow into seasons and the only team to beat them to a title in the last six campaigns, Liverpool, had to become a pure winning machine to eventually topple them – by a stunning margin, it must be added.

While winning almost every game might feel unrealistic, Arsenal came close in the first half of last season, winning 16 of their first 19, dropping just seven points in that period. We all know what happened in the run-in, but no-one can let City move ahead and have any reasonable ambition of reeling them in come springtime.

The Gunners are already just three points off that tally this season with 12 fewer games played, four goals conceded in home draws against Fulham and Tottenham being hardly the mark of champions. City have given them an opening they must seize and then build on.

The other primary reason why Arsenal simply must win on Sunday is, unlike the tangible notion of league placings and point totals, belief.

There has not been a league win for Arsenal against City since December 2015, the season before Pep arrived. In the 14 league meetings since, Guardiola has won 13 and drawn one, rather amazingly and embarrassingly for the Gunners.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta looking smug

Sure, there have been two FA Cup semi-final wins and a penalty shootout victory in this year’s Community Shield, but neither of those cup wins, namely the 2020 edition which helped Arteta land his sole trophy in charge to date, made any difference when it came to league matches.

You also cannot read too much into the season’s traditional curtain raiser and what is a semi-friendly nowadays: eventual champions City lost the previous two to Liverpool and Leicester after all.

Last season’s clashes showed the gap between the sides when it truly came to it. The 3-1 win for City at the Emirates was Arsenal’s first home league loss of the season and set in some panic (which was then calmed); the 4-1 at the Etihad just confirmed the destination of the title after the wheels well and truly came off.

Another loss this weekend would further rubberstamp the idea that last season was the best chance Arsenal would ever get to win a league title against this City side, and that Arteta remains the pupil/Padawan to Guardiola, incapable of truly toppling him (without breaking all types of FFP rules anyway; those 115 charges must grate the Gunners like everyone else in the league).

It has been said, by Jamie Carragher most recently, that Arsenal are too emotional and treat every game like a final, but if one ever felt like it, it is this Sunday at the Emirates.

Win and hope/belief will only grow for both the Gunners and the rest of the pretenders. Lose and the fear of another procession will multiply at an alarming rate. It is time for Arteta and his Arsenal side to step up and make a statement.

After all of this, what odds on a draw?