Arsenal have a huge game coming up this weekend as the Premier League run-in finally gets under way after the international break.
The Gunners head to Manchester City in a 4:30pm kick-off on Sunday, with just one point separating the two teams going into the crunch clash.
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal and Pep Guardiola’s Citizens contested a superb title race last season and they’re doing it again this term, alongside Liverpool.
Arsenal currently sit top of the standings on 64 points, but Liverpool are level on points in second and Man City are just a point behind in third.
Neither side could’ve asked for a harder fixture to get the run-in under way after the international break.
Ahead of a game of such magnitude, it’s not surprising to see so much build-up. On Friday, Arteta spoke at length with Sky Sports about the fixture.
Who is Mikel Arteta’s ‘real threat’ against Man City?
The Arsenal boss singled Kai Havertz out for praise, seemingly warning Man City that he could have a key role against them.
Havertz was a £65million signing for the Gunners from Chelsea last summer. And though it took him a little while to find his feet, he’s now firing on all cylinders.
The 24-year-old has primarily been used as a left-sided midfielder this season, but has also been playing as a false nine.
“In both roles, it is his intelligence and his capacity to read situations,” Arteta told Sky Sports.
“He is a constant threat. He can threaten you in behind, he can come to some good spaces and provoke a lot of issues positionally for the opponent.
“And yeah, he has become a real threat in the opponent’s box as well because now he is scoring goals.”
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It’s great to see Havertz finally gelling at Arsenal and showing the kind of form that made him such a highly sought-after player when he was at Bayer Leverkusen.
Havertz’s efforts have helped the Gunners surge back into title contention – and also into the last eight of the Champions League – after wobbling during the festive period.
It just goes to show that you can’t write a player off even if he struggles in his first half-season, or in some cases, even the entirety of his maiden season, as was the case with Darwin Nunez at Liverpool.
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