Arsenal Arsenal

Man City Manchester City

When and where

City travel to North London to face the Gunners on Sunday 21 February, with kick-off at 16:30 (UK).

In the UK, the game will be available to watch live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League.

Fans living abroad can check out our global TV listings at the foot of the page to find out how you can tune in.

If you’re unable to watch the game, you can get minute by minute coverage in our Matchday Centre here on mancity.com and we’ll also have live updates on Twitter: @ManCity.

A full-match replay will be available to watch on CITY+ from midnight after the game.

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Premier League

Liverpool

16:30

BST

Man City

We’re Not Really Here

Paul Dickov and Shaun Goater will be the guests on our live matchday show, which will be hosted by Cel Spellman.

We’re Not Really Here provides a City focused perspective to your pre-match build-up and begins one hour before kick-off at 15:30.

It is available to watch on all our digital platforms and also includes a brief half-time summary and 30-minutes of post-match reaction.

During the game there will be live commentary, which you can enjoy exclusively on mancity.com and our official app.

City team

XI: Ederson, Cancelo, Stones, Dias, Zinchenko, Fernandinho, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Mahrez, Sterling

Subs: Steffen, Walker, Jesus, Aguero, Laporte, Rodrigo, Torres, Mendy, Foden

Arsenal team

XI: Leno, Bellerin, Holding, Mari, Tierney, Elneny, Xhaka, Saka, Odegaard, Pepe, Aubameyang

Subs: Ryan, Cedric, David Luiz, Gabriel, Ceballos, Willian, Smith-Rowe, Martinelli, Lacazette

Read Pep Guardiola’s pre-match fitness briefing, here.

City tactics

There is no natural, out-and-out striker in the City starting XI today, with both Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Aguero on the bench.

That means a False 9 will be employed, with flexibility and fluidity in attacking areas vital. 

Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne have all played that role for City in the past, as has Ilkay Gundogan, our top scorer in the Premier League with 11 in his last 12.

Regardless of who is given that responsibility, City will play a 4-3-3 formation, with possession of the ball central to our approach. 

Arsenal, with former City assistant manager Mikel Arteta in charge, play a similar style. They will look to dominate possession and in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang they have one of the league’s most potent strikers. 

And Guardiola is under no illusions about the difficulty of the task we face. In his pre-match press conference on Friday, he spoke of Arsenal’s dominance in recent weeks, saying: “All I can say is that the last month or two months have shown me that all the managers need time.

“They play better than the opponent in every game, as a manager you want the results you deserve, sometimes it doesn’t happen.

“And in the games they are always better than the opponent when you analyse the control of the game, creating chances and conceding few.

“We’ll need to play as good as possible with the ball and run a lot because they have exceptional build up play.”

Victory today would see City equal the Club record of 11 consecutive away wins across all competitions and extend our remarkable winning run to 18 games. 

Pep Guardiola preview

“How many points do we have as an advantage over Leicester and United? 10 points. How many points to play for? 42! When this happens, many things can happen.

“10 days ago we played at Anfield. We were seven points in front. Losing we would have been four. 10 days later we are 16 points in front of Liverpool. That means in just 10 days absolutely everything can change. We could have been four, but we have 16.

“The best thing is to focus on the next game, don’t listen much to what people have to say about the team. Of course, we are so proud of what we have done so far but we are in February. Springtime is not here - and you win titles in the summertime.”

		Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Form
1		Manchester City Man City	5	5	0	0	13	5	8	15
2		Arsenal Arsenal	5	4	0	1	8	4	4	12
3		Brighton and Hove Albion Brighton	5	3	1	1	16	5	11	10

Form guide

City are the Premier League’s in form team going into this one, having won 17 games in a row as part of a 24 match unbeaten run.

We have beaten Arsenal in our last seven Premier League meetings.

The Gunners have won one of their last five games in all competitions and drew 1-1 away at Benfica in the Europa League in midweek.

Last meeting

A ruthless attacking display gave City a 4-1 away win in the Carabao Cup quarter-final in December.

Gabriel Jesus nodded the visitors in front inside three minutes, but Alexandre Lacazette scored a header of his own to level before the break.

Two goals in five minutes from Riyad Mahrez and Phil Foden swung the contest in City’s favour early in the second half, before Aymeric Laporte glanced in from a Foden cross to seal the victory.

Match officials

Referee: Jonathan Moss
Assistants: Marc Perry, Dan Robathan
Fourth official: Andy Madley
VAR: Peter Bankes
Assistant VAR: Timothy Wood

Global TV listings