Mikel Arteta confirms Arsenal fitness problems in explanation for squad rotation vs Man City

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has provided an explanation for the latest batch of alterations to his starting XI this evening.

Arsenal vs City

The Gunners are of course currently locked in action with Manchester City at the Emirates, in Sunday’s marquee Premier League fixture.

Arteta’s men headed into proceedings amid an altogether hit-and-miss spell of form of late, culminating in just one win from their last five across all competitions.

This 3-point haul, though, came in impressive fashion versus Leeds last weekend, with Arsenal having since followed up with a credible 1-1 draw with Benfica in the Europa League on Thursday night.

Securing another positive result this evening, however, will be far easier said than done.

This comes with Man City currently in the midst of a frankly remarkable spell of form of their own.

After getting the better of Everton at Goodison Park during the week, Pep Guardiola’s men made it 17 consecutive victories across all competitions, a stretch which unsurprisingly sees the Sky Blues sitting pretty atop the Premier League table.

Man City have scored 40 more goals than they’ve conceded during their 17 game winning streak.

Utterly relentless. 🔵 pic.twitter.com/P3GZt2YfJf

— Statman Dave (@StatmanDave) February 17, 2021

‘Don’t have a choice’

Further boosting the hopes of the visitors in north London, meanwhile, was word arriving ahead of kick-off that the in-form Ilkay Gundogan has returned to the City fold, to slot into midfield alongside Kevin De Bruyne:

Taking on the Gunners! 💪

XI | Ederson, Cancelo, Dias, Stones, Zinchenko, Fernandinho (C), Gundogan, Bernardo, Mahrez, De Bruyne, Sterling

SUBS | Steffen, Walker, Jesus, Aguero, Laporte, Rodrigo, Torres, Mendy, Foden

⚽️ @HaysWorldwide
🔷 #ManCity | https://t.co/axa0klD5re pic.twitter.com/oO3AdTf725

— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 21, 2021

Mikel Arteta, on the other hand, has opted to ring the changes this evening.

The Arsenal boss reintroduced the likes of Pablo Mari, Mohamed Elneny, Kieran Tierney and Nicolas Pepe to his starting XI, with Emile Smith Rowe amongst those to have dropped out:

📋 Today’s team news is in!

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @KieranTierney1 starts
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @RobHolding95 returns
🇪🇸 @PabloMV5 will partner him

#️⃣ #ARSMCI

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) February 21, 2021

In turn, speaking during his pre-match interview, Arteta was inevitably drawn on the latest batch of alterations to his line-up.

And the Spaniard went on to confirm that he was left with ‘no choice’ but to shake things up, amid struggles on the part of a number of his side’s stars to even train ahead of today’s fixture:

‘We don’t have a choice. We have players who have struggled to train the last few days.’

📺 Hear from @m8arteta ahead of kick-off as he discusses…

▪️ Squad rotation
▪️ Kieran’s return
▪️ Rob and Pablo
▪️ The evolution of today’s opponents

🔜 #ARSMCI pic.twitter.com/UmZmhmpS5k

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) February 21, 2021

Arsenal vs Manchester City live streaming: Watch Premier League online

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This article was edited by Josh Barker.

Source: 101greatgoals.com