Could this be the game that hammers the final nail into Arsene Wenger’s coffin at the Emirates? The Frenchman has only two wins in nine against Pep Guardiola.
Arsenal are 3.15 with Sportingbet for victory with City chalked up at 2.33 Paddy Power. The draw is a tempting 3.75 with Bet365 and BetVictor.
There are some interesting bits of teams news which could impact your thinking. Arsenal are without Petr Cech. Ordinarily you would reckon this was a severe blow but they have won seven per cent more without Cech between the sticks this term.
More significant is the return of Mesut Ozil. He has been missing for six weeks and he is utterly vital to their success or rather lack of it. They have won 64 per cent of matches with him and only 50 per cent without. Interesting, no?
In the doom and gloom that surrounds Arsenal on their current run of misery, a statistic which gives clarity, context and cuts through the fug is lost. That is the hype machine which can put punters away when betting on the Premier League.
So consider how important these stats are…
Arsenal have lost four of their last five Premier League games for the first time since April 1995.
This is only the second time in Premier League history that Arsenal have been outside the top five in April. The other was in 2006.
Now had Ozil been available, it is likely that we will not be discussing the great Arsenal debacle. What is a bit of a fly to an Arsenal wager is their record against the top six. It reads (most recent last): LWDDLLL.
But it is pretty easy to make a case for the Gunners, particularly if you subscribe to the notion that something has got to give. Arsenal are due a win. And maybe Man City are due a defeat. They are seven unbeaten.
As for the goals markets, it is worth noting that the last seven league meeting between the two have produced a whooping average of 3.86 goals per game. Over 3.5 goals comes in at 2.56 on several of our green listed bookmakers.
We should mention that Arsenal +0.5 on the Asian at 1.94 with BetVictor really caught our eye and that is probably our top-rated wager, pipping the stalemate. That hype machine will be most disappointed with a draw but the smart money looks to be on an improved Arsenal showing.
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