Arsenal is devising strategies to disrupt Manchester City’s monopoly on the Premier League title in anticipation of their critical match at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Declan Rice asserts that Arsenal has acquired valuable lessons from their previous two seasons of failure against Manchester City and is prepared to advance to the next level and secure the Premier League title.
The Gunners are aware that the match against City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon will be crucial to their prospects of winning the trophy in May. City have been relentlessly consistent under Pep Guardiola, winning four consecutive titles and six of the last seven.
Arsenal’s two losses to Aston Villa ultimately resulted in them falling two points behind their rivals, as City held them to a 0-0 draw at the Etihad last season. Arsenal has been progressively constructing Arteta over the past few years, and Rice claims that he conducted a candid team meeting in the summer to outline the necessary steps for this season.
Rice elaborated on the conversation with Arsenal women’s star forward Alessia Russo for Sky Sports, stating, “When we returned, it was analogous to one of the manager’s initial meetings. We discussed how we could improve this season and how we could upgrade.” The previous year, we were unsuccessful in achieving league status by a mere two points, while the year prior was a mere four points.
Therefore, the question was how can we continue to improve and strive for more? We are exceedingly tight. We contemplate the Villa encounter, which ultimately disappointed us due to its intricacies. Although it was disappointing, it was a year that was generally positive.
Arsenal has faced off against City on numerous occasions since their 4-1 defeat in April 2023; however, these matches have been exceedingly competitive. The Gunners will be without captain Martin Odegaard on Sunday due to injury, and the last three meetings in all competitions have yielded only three goals.
They are entering the match following another challenging road encounter, having drawn 0-0 with Atalanta in the Champions League on Thursday. In Bergamo, the Gunners were able to secure a point thanks to David Raya’s remarkable double save, which prevented a penalty and the rebound.
Arteta is aware of the necessary steps to defeat City. “We will certainly prepare to attempt to secure a victory, as we did tonight,” he stated following the Atalanta draw. “That message has already been conveyed.” In order to accomplish this, we will need to perform tasks that are significantly more effective than they were tonight.
“There are certain tasks that we have executed exceptionally well tonight, and we will need to repeat them.” “Because we are all aware that we must deliver a significant performance in order to best them.”
When asked about Arsenal’s attack, he responded, “Certainly, we seek to enhance certain aspects; however, it is imperative that we achieve a significantly higher level of performance in order to achieve this.” We were never able to establish the appropriate relationships or distances, and we were consistently placing the ball in areas where it was most detrimental. In order for the team to function smoothly, it is imperative that we maintain a higher level of consistency. If you desire the game to be fluid, we must implement it with greater consistency.
