The Emirates plays host to the biggest match of the 2023/24 Premier League campaign so far as Arsenal look to show their title credentials against champions Manchester City in a game between the top two from last season.
The head-to-head last term proved pivotal as City claimed the championship by five points, having taken six against Arsenal by winning 3-1 at the Emirates and 4-1 at the Etihad.
Arsenal Draw No Bet @ Evens
Martin Odegaard To Score @ 7/2
Julian Alvarez Method Of Goal - Score Outside The Box @ 11/1
Odds displayed were correct at the time of writing and subject to fluctuation.
View all the latest Football odds
The recent story of this fixture makes for miserable reading if you are an Arsenal fan with 12 straight Premier League defeats at the hands of City, who have already fought their way to the top of the table despite traditionally being slow starters.
However, Arsenal did win the Community Shield on penalties against City and might not have a better chance to end the hoodoo given the injury and suspension issues in Pep Guardiola's squad.
City are the best team around but their treble success last season came in large part to the brilliant midfield of Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri and Ilkay Gundogan, with John Stones playing a hybrid role that became almost impossible for opponents to counter.
And now Guardiola's side head to north London without any of that quartet available following Gundogan's departure to Barcelona, Rodri's suspension and injuries to De Bruyne and Stones.
Rodri is the one who is most difficult to replace and it might not be a coincidence that City lost last week without the Spaniard in disappointing circumstances in a 2-1 loss at Wolves.
Arsenal will surely fancy their chances of getting at a makeshift midfield and it's huge for the Gunners that Bukayo Saka has not been ruled out of the match after an injury scare in Lens on Tuesday.
Mikel Arteta's men have lost only one of their last 14 home matches and the summer signing of Declan Rice was made for moments like this.
Thomas Partey was missing when City won at the Emirates last term and then William Saliba sat out the thrashing at the Etihad but now it's Arsenal who head into the match with a more settled side.
Beating City is never going to be simple, but there is a strong chance for Arsenal to at the very least snap the 12-match losing streak to them.
Arsenal have scored at least twice in all of their five home games this season and Saka has notched in four of those games, but he handed over penalty taking duties at Bournemouth last week and it could be time for Martin Odegaard to deliver a captain's performance.
Odegaard hit the net in the 3-1 win over Manchester United and he has matched Saka for shots this season - both have had 16 - with the Norwegian shading the efforts on target 8-7.
Whatever solution Guardiola comes up with to try to solve his midfield puzzle it won't be the same without Rodri screening his defence and that offers opportunities for Arsenal's midfielders to get a better sight of Ederson's goal.
Odegaard is preferred to Saka to score as he is more likely to get the full 90 minutes given the injury problems of the Englishman, but both could well be thorns in Guardiola's side.
Erling Haaland is no normal striker so by his usual standards the City goalscoring machine is in a quiet spell with one goal in his last four matches and if the visitors are to get on the scoresheet, it could come via another route.
Julian Alvarez continues to shine for City, scoring six times this season, and he needed only five minutes off the bench against Leipzig on Wednesday to find the net for the third time in the Champions League this term.
Alvarez seems to have taken over set-piece duties with De Bruyne sidelined and two of his goals have come from outside the penalty area, which makes the juicy prices on him scoring outside the box again interesting.
Arsenal Draw No Bet @ Evens
Martin Odegaard To Score @ 7/2
Julian Alvarez Method Of Goal - Score Outside The Box @ 11/1
Odds displayed were correct at the time of writing and subject to fluctuation.
View all the latest Football odds
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