Manchester City vs Arsenal preview, team news and h2h: Haaland looking to decide EPL title winners

The race for the Premier League title is down to the wire, with Manchester City and Arsenal vying to be crowned Champions, Afrik Foot reports.

Both sides are currently separated by six points, although Pep Guardiola’s side have a game in hand.

Arsenal have lost three domestic games on the bounce, and could lose further momentum if they drop points at the Etihad tomorrow.

Match Preview: Manchester City vs. Arsenal

Pep Guardiola was unambiguous in his pre-match press conference. “It’s a final,” he said. The City manager added that the title race will effectively be over for his side if they do not win on Sunday.

Arsenal currently lead the table with 70 points from 32 games, while Manchester City are close behind with 64 points and a game in hand.

A City win reduces the gap to three points and preserves their game in hand, genuine leverage heading into the final five fixtures. A draw would keep Arsenal six clear and leave them as heavy favourites for the title. A win for the Gunners would likely end the debate altogether.

City arrive off the back of three successive wins: a Carabao Cup final victory over Arsenal, a 4-0 FA Cup quarter-final dismantling of Liverpool and a commanding 3-0 Premier League win at Stamford Bridge last weekend, with momentum firmly behind Guardiola’s side.

Nine goals scored, none conceded across those three matches, a level of consistency that defines a team peaking at the right moment.

Arsenal’s situation is more complicated. They suffered a 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth at the Emirates last weekend, handing City the opportunity to close the gap.

Midweek brought better news: a goalless draw with Sporting Lisbon at the Emirates confirmed their passage to the Champions League semi-finals for the second consecutive season, where Atlético Madrid await, but that result came at a physical cost, with key players carrying knocks into Sunday.

Arsenal players have made 15 errors leading to a shot in their 13 Premier League games since the start of 2026, almost twice as many as in their 19 matches between August and December.

Head to Head: Manchester City vs. Arsenal

Manchester City are unbeaten in their last 10 Premier League home games against Arsenal, winning seven and drawing three.

In the reverse fixture at the Emirates on 21 September 2025, the match ended 1-1: Haaland opened the scoring after nine minutes on the counter, before Gabriel Martinelli equalised deep into stoppage time following a fine assist from Eberechi Eze. It was the fifth consecutive league meeting under Arteta in which Arsenal had not lost to City.

The two sides met most recently at Wembley in March, with City winning 2-0 in the Carabao Cup final thanks to a brace of headers from Nico O’Reilly, the revelation of the season, delivering City their first trophy in two seasons.

That defeat ended Arsenal’s unbeaten run against City in 90 minutes, which had stretched back to the 4-1 loss in April 2023.

Team News

Manchester City

Rúben Dias remains sidelined with the hamstring injury sustained before the Carabao Cup final in March.

John Stones is also out after picking up a calf problem during the international break, while Joško Gvardiol continues his recovery from a tibial fracture sustained in January and is not expected back this season.

The triple defensive absence forces Guardiola to persist with Marc Guéhi and Abdukodik Khusanov as his central defensive partnership, a solution that has been working.

Guéhi scored in the 3-0 win over Chelsea and looks increasingly settled alongside the Uzbek centre-back. Guardiola confirmed that Nico O’Reilly, who was substituted with a hamstring concern during the Chelsea win, is “fine” and available for selection.

Bernardo Silva is one yellow card away from a two-match suspension and will need to manage his disciplinary record carefully.

Predicted Manchester City XI (4-3-3): Donnarumma; Nunes, Khusanov, Guéhi, O’Reilly; Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Cherki; Semenyo, Haaland, Doku.

Arsenal

Bukayo Saka will be unavailable on Sunday, Arteta confirmed. Martin Odegaard, Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori are all doubtful, with Arteta saying “some players are quite close” but offering no guarantee of their availability.

Noni Madueke, who hobbled off in the Sporting match, is also uncertain. If both Saka and Madueke are absent, the wide positions will likely fall to Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard.

In midfield, Declan Rice and Martín Zubimendi are certain starters, with Mikel Merino expected to complete the trio. Eberechi Eze has cemented his place as the number ten with Odegaard still recovering.

Viktor Gyökeres is the central attacking reference, having contributed 13 goal involvements since the start of 2026 alone, ranking among the most productive forwards in the top five European leagues over that period.

The defensive structure of William Saliba and Gabriel in the centre remains intact, with Piero Hincapié expected at left-back and Cristhian Mosquera at right-back.

Predicted Arsenal XI (4-3-3): Raya; Mosquera, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapié; Rice, Zubimendi, Merino; Trossard, Gyökeres, Martinelli.

The Managers

Pep Guardiola is in his tenth year at Manchester City and has never gone two consecutive seasons without a major trophy.

Manchester City are undefeated in their last nine Premier League matches, hitting form at just the right moment as they look to overhaul Arsenal at the summit.

The Carabao Cup is already secured. The FA Cup semi-final awaits. The primary mission, however, is the league.

Guardiola confirmed that he is “fine” after an injury scare last weekend, and the manner of the Chelsea win, controlled, clinical, composed, suggested a side that has recovered its identity at precisely the right juncture.

Mikel Arteta faces the most important match of his Arsenal tenure. The Spaniard, who worked as Guardiola’s assistant at City between 2016 and 2019, has built one of the most organised defensive structures in the Premier League and taken the club to back-to-back Champions League semi-finals.

But a 22-year absence from the Premier League title defines what this season ultimately means, and a defeat on Sunday would turn what has been a season of genuine progress into one that ends in familiar frustration.

Arteta will be acutely aware that his side’s recent defensive errors, almost double the number of errors leading to shots in the second half of the season compared to the first, need to be eliminated at the Etihad.

Tactical Preview

Guardiola will deploy his 4-3-3 with Rodri as the holding midfielder, Bernardo Silva providing control in the middle third and Rayan Cherki as the mobile number ten.

Jeremy Doku and Antoine Semenyo offer pace and directness from the flanks, while O’Reilly operates in a hybrid left-wing role that shifts between full-back and winger.

The plan will be familiar: maintain possession, invite Arsenal’s press and punish the space in behind with quick vertical passes to Haaland. It is the system that produced the reverse league fixture’s goal and the Carabao Cup final’s winning formula.

Arsenal will need to be at their disciplined best; City are unbeaten in their last 14 Premier League home matches, scoring at least twice in 12 of them.

Without Saka and potentially without Madueke, Arteta’s wide threat is significantly reduced. Trossard and Martinelli can provide industry and movement, but neither offers the same capacity to create from nothing in one-on-one situations as the regulars.

The creative burden shifts to Eze through the centre, who has either scored or assisted in each of his last three appearances against City across all competitions.

The vulnerability in Guardiola’s set-up lies in the central defensive pairing. Guéhi and Khusanov have been impressive but lack the experience and aerial authority of Dias and Stones, and Arsenal’s dead-ball threat, with Saliba, Gabriel and Hincapié all dangerous from set pieces, represents the most realistic route to a goal in an away fixture of this magnitude.

City, in turn, will probe the spaces Arsenal leave when they commit players forward, with Haaland the permanent reference point in behind.