The notoriously busy Premier League schedule has begun to slow back down after Christmas but for the teams fighting in Europe, the fixtures keep coming thick and fast. One of those is Manchester City who are in action on Sunday afternoon as they host Arsenal.

STATS

• Man City have been very good this season but haven’t been quite up to the standard they set last term and are behind Liverpool in the title race. They’re still battling on all fronts but a shocking defeat against Newcastle in midweek means they have lost ground on the Reds who also dropped points. They must bounce at the start of a month where they face FA Cup and Champions League tests.
• Arsenal look a different beast under Unai Emery but they are still in transition and are struggling to break into the top four. Although, they are three points behind Chelsea who occupy fourth and the Gunners have the game-in-hand. They squeezed past Cardiff in the week, winning 2-1 following a convincing 2-0 victory against Chelsea at the weekend.
• Sergio Aguero is having another good campaign but he’s five goals behind the Golden Boot race leader, Mo Salah. With 11 goals, Aguero has just one more than his team-mate, Raheem Sterling.
• Arsenal’s leading scorer is much closer to the top of the pile as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has just one fewer than the Egyptian star with 15 in the league.

HEAD TO HEAD

With Man City’s relative dominance in recent years, there’s no surprise to see that they tend to get on well against Arsenal. They have won each of their last three against the London side in the league and are unbeaten in the last six. The Gunners have failed to score in their last two Premier League meetings with City, conceding five goals in the process.

MANCHESTER CITY NEWS

A win for Man City would reduce the gap at the top to just two points ahead of Liverpool’s trip to West Ham on Monday night. They are without captain Vincent Kompany whilst Benjamin Mendy is almost fully recovered from his knee injury and could play from the start.

Latest matches: Manchester City

29.01.2019	Prem	Newcastle United	Manchester City	2:1	L
26.01.2019	FA C	Manchester City	Burnley FC	5:0	W
23.01.2019	EFL	Burton Albion	Manchester City	0:1	W
20.01.2019	Prem	Huddersfield Town	Manchester City	0:3	W
14.01.2019	Prem	Manchester City	Wolverhampton Wanderers	3:0	W

ARSENAL NEWS

Following Chelsea’s 5-0 win against Huddersfield, Arsenal must pick up all three points to go level on points with them. Sokratis, Rob Holding and Laurent Koscielny are expected to miss out in defence while Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Ainsley Maitland-Niles face late fitness tests.

Latest matches: Arsenal FC

29.01.2019	Prem	Arsenal FC	Cardiff City	2:1	W
25.01.2019	FA C	Arsenal FC	Manchester United	1:3	L
19.01.2019	Prem	Arsenal FC	Chelsea FC	2:0	W
12.01.2019	Prem	West Ham United	Arsenal FC	1:0	L
05.01.2019	FA C	Blackpool FC	Arsenal FC	0:3	W

SUMMARY

As they so often do, Manchester City should beat Arsenal on Sunday even though they failed to get any points against Newcastle. The visitors are in good goalscoring form which is why backing both teams to score and over 2.5 goals might be worth backing. Emery’s side have a habit of trailing at half-time this season so Man City to be winning at the break looks an attractive price.