Welbeck To Guide Gunners To Emirates Glory

Arsenal host Manchester City at the Emirates for the early kick-off on Saturday, can the Gunners take three points at home against the current champions?

Form

One win and two draws make for an uninspiring start to the new season for Arsenal. The Gunners kicked off the campaign with a 3-0 win against Manchester City in the Community Shield and then followed that up with three points in their first game of the season against Crystal Palace, albeit somewhat fortuitously via a last minute winner.

Since then they’ve stumbled to away draws with Everton – again courtesy of a last minute goal – Besiktas and Leicester, with a 1-0 home win against the Turkish outfit sandwiched in the middle.

Alexis Sanchez has scored two in his last two appearances for the Gunners, while Aaron Ramsey also has two for the season.

Manchester City’s encouraging start to the season was brought to an abrupt halt by Stoke a fortnight ago. The Potters’ 1-0 win was City’s first league defeat at the Etihad since Chelsea won there back in February and was only the second time in 71 home matches that the Citizens had failed to find the back of the net.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side had got off to the perfect start to the new season after recording wins against Newcastle then Liverpool. Stevan Jovetic and Sergio Aguero have each scored twice this season, with David Silva getting the club’s only other goal.

Team News

Olivier Giroud has been ruled out for 3-4 months and is joined on the sidelines by Serge Gnabry. Mikel Arteta and Kieran Gibbs could make returns following respective ankle and hamstring injuries, while Theo Walcott is back in training but remains some way from full match fitness. Aaron Ramsey picked up an ankle injury when playing for Wales in midweek and could also miss the game. Deadline day signing Danny Welbeck is expected to make his debut in place of Yaya Sanogo.

Fernando was forced off in the first half of the loss to Stoke with a groin injury, while Jovetic and Pablo Zabaleta both picked up knocks when on international duty. Jovetic’s injury leaves City surprisingly short of attacking options with only Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero as available strikers.

Head-to-Head

The most recent meeting between the two sides came in this season’s Community Shield where Arsenal won 3-0 thanks to goals from Ramsey, Giroud and Santi Cazorla. We shouldn’t, however, look too much into this result given the side that City fielded was far from being full strength and the ‘friendly’ nature of the fixture.

City won 6-3 in a goal-glut when the two teams met at the Etihad last season, but the meeting at the Emirates was a comparatively sedate affair as Mathieu Flamini and David Silva scored in a 1-1 draw.

Recommended Bets

As outsiders in the Match Odds betting, the value has to be with the home side at odds of 7/4.

The Gunners lost only one home league game last season and have started this season with a 100% Emirates record in all competitions.

I also like the look of the 13/2 and 17/10 about Danny Welbeck scoring first and anytime respectively. The Englishman arrives at Arsenal high in confidence following his two goals in midweek and in that same game showed how he can thrive when playing through the middle.