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The players are ready, the managers have just had a businesslike embrace on the sideline. Let’s crack on.
“I have been in the ‘mute the telecast listen to music’ school for decades!” says Joe Pearson. “Starting early today with Soul Coughing’s utterly bizarre ‘Ruby Vroom’. Rock on!”
I love music but I can’t be having this. It’s the football-watching equivalent of a deep-fried Mars bar.
“ITV has just shown Pep giving a masterclass of top-flight burlesque in the pre-match interview,” says Charles Antaki. “Two parts mumbling Marlon Brando, one part Norman Wisdom gurning, and the most enthusiastic part stereotyped Continental shrugging, pouting, and headshaking. All in the excellent service of saying absolutely nothing.”
And so does Pep
It’s a good night for, I hope, a great football game. [What do you think about the Arsenal selection?] I don’t know, ask Mikel. It’s his decision. [A few more attempts to get Pep to talk about the Arsenal XI, which he ignores] It’s still a strong team, it’s Arsenal.
They control all departments [of the game] – set pieces, high pressing, defend deep. To do what they have done you have to be a really good side.
He really can’t abide pre-match interviews, can he.
Mikel Arteta speaks
It’s a big opportunity. We’re playing against a top, top side and we have to prove that we have the level to compete and win the game. [What’s the thinking behind six changes?] That everybody needs game time, that they deserve game time the way they train every day.
[Why not play your best XI to see how they match up against City?] For different reasons, and because they were struggling after the Man Utd game. And the other players fully deserve to play. We still think we have a very competitive team. We’ll have to be at our best level to beat City today. [Will you have a drink with Pep afterwards?] For sure.
“Maybe it is just me,” writes Scott, “but a fight between Pep and Arteta would be the highlight of the day.”
Yeah, that’s the kind of thing nobody likes to see.
“The recent lauding of Martin Ødegaard – quite proper and fully deserved, of course, as any Arsenal fan will tell you – makes this an almost impossible gig for Fabio Vieira,” says Charles Antaki. “Yes, he has shown the odd twinkle and the occasional bit of niftiness, but not anything like the sustained brilliance of Ødegaard. You hope, at least for his sake, that he has a half-decent game, and that Arsenal win; otherwise, the question marks.”
Evening Roy.
“Looking forward to the match,” says Shane OLeary. I’ll have a sound-off telly, your commentary and the two underrated and transitional albums for Bolan and for Bowie in the headphones. (‘Zinc Alloy & The Hidden Riders Of Tomorrow - A Creamed Cage In August’ and ‘Diamond Dogs’). A good fit because City & Arsenal seem to be in transition at the moment and I’m hoping that Arsenal continue their development and that City continue to flail violently and elegantly against their loss of certainty.”
I’m all for novel ways to watch football, but listening to albums while watching the TV and reading commentary on the internet? I’d have a blinding headache by the end of Explosive Mouth.
“I found myself watching the video of REM’s 1994 rocker ‘What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?’ recently,” says Peter Oh. “When frontman Michael Stipe starts throwing shapes it instantly reminded me of the way Pep Guardiola moves when he prowls the touchline. That unmistakably angular, passionate, gangly, animated, contorted body language that only a rock star could pull off. The choreographers at the Etihad really should put a mic stand in the home technical area.”
And somebody needs to do a Venn diagram with Michael Stipe in one circle and David Brent in the other.
“As far as protecting the most important players,” says Zach Neeley, “glad to see Odegaard get a break but I would love to see Saka rested because he works so damn hard, and Partey because Arsenal are doomed without him.”
I think it’s quite a smart selection by Arteta. If Arsenal are hammered, he can rationalise it – six changes – and crack on with trying to win the league; and if they win away to a near full-strength City with this XI, it’ll be quite a statement. The worst-case scenario for Arteta, and the one that might have had a negative impact on their title challenge, was a full-strength Arsenal losing to a weakened City.
Team news: two changes for City, six for Arsenal
Pep Guardiola has picked a very strong City side, with only two changes from the team that beat Wolves last weekend. Stefan Ortega replaces Ederson in goal; Nathan Ake comes into the defence in place of Aymeric Laporte. We don’t yet know whether City will play 4-1-2-3 or Pep’s new favourite formation, 3-2-2-3.
Mikel Arteta has picked more of a hybrid Arsenal side, with six changes from the rousing win over Manchester United. Matt Turner, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Rob Holding, Kieran Tierney, Fabio Vieira and Leandro Trossard – making his full debut – replace Aaron Ramsdale, Ben White, William Saliba, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Martinelli. All six are on the bench, as is Arsenal’s other new signing Jakob Kiwior.
Manchester City (possible 4-1-2-3) Ortega; Lewis, Stones, Akanji, Ake; Rodri; De Bruyne, Gundogan; Mahrez, Haaland, Grealish.
Substitutes: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Phillips, Cancelo, Laporte, Alvarez, Bernardo, Palmer.
Arsenal (4-1-2-3) Turner; Tomiyasu, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney; Partey; Vieira, Xhaka; Saka, Nketiah, Trossard.
Substitutes: Ramsdale, White, Zinchenko, Saliba, Kiwior, Lokonga, Odegaard, Marquinhos, Martinelli.
Referee Paul Tierney.
Preamble
To coin a phrase, 391 days is a long time in football. When Manchester City last met Arsenal, pilfering a 2-1 win at the Emirates on New Year’s Day 2022, the landscape of English football was exceedingly different. Manchester City were the runaway leaders and Arsenal were brawling, ultimately in vain, for fourth place.
Thirteen months is a long time for two big teams to go without playing each other. In that period, and particularly since Arsenal’s flying start to the season, anticipation has grown for the next meeting between City and the emerging Mini-City. It should have happened in the Premier League on 19 October, but that game was postponed for reasons too boring to explain when you can just use a hyperlink like this to do the job.
The upshot is that City and Arsenal will meet at least three times in the next three months – tonight’s FA Cup fourth round tie, then a league game at the Emirates on 15 February and another (save the date because it could be all kinds of epic) at the Etihad on 26 April. There will also be a cup replay if they draw tonight.
The league games are the big ones, and it’s hard to know just what tonight’s game is all about. Is it a chance to make a statement in the title race? A cracking FA Cup tie in its own right? A test of squad depth? A test of Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta’s friendship? An inconvenience that it might be beneficial to lose, especially for Arsenal? The start of English football’s new favourite rivalry?
One thing we can all agree on: with a respectful nod to Brighton v Liverpool, this is emphatically the tie of the round.
Kick off 8pm.
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