EPL Preview: Pep Guardiola takes on Mikel Arteta in battle for Spanish superiority

English Premier League fans are already struggling to keep the excitement contained as the third Super Sunday in a row approaches.

Of course, this is when Arsenal, three times bridesmaid finisher, welcome Manchester City to the Emirates stadium in an encounter that red Merseysiders wish could repeat itself every weekend to blunt their rivals for the crown – not King Charles’ head but the league trophy – and chances of usurping them on the throne.

Best run in almost a decade

Last season, Arsenal enjoyed the best run against City in almost a decade, taking all points home, 5-1, and one away, 2-all. In the 20 games before, they had only beaten them once, also recording four draws.

But the Gunners will be excited for this one. Particularly because City have returned from the Emirates empty-handed on the last two trips.

On the other hand, the Cityzens will be more than hopeful en route to North London.
City have been growing in confidence from their disastrous last season when they finished third in the standings behind Arsenal for the first time in nine years.

But against their red neighbours, United last Sunday, and particularly against Napoli on Thursday in the Champions League, City are finding their feet. Of course, there were mitigating circumstances.

Manchester United were awful. And the Italians played with 10 men for more than 70 minutes after their captain was shown a red card for a foul on Erling Haaland.

Tricky situation for Arsenal

Mitigators or not, Arsenal would need to take advantage of whatever weakness there still might be in the City team. And these have been reducing rapidly with every game since the season opened.

But Arsenal fans should also be concerned about their own recent weaknesses.
For some unknown reason, Mikel Arteta has taken it into his head that to win the league, Arsenal must be defensive. Except that it isn’t working out on the pitch.

Every time they have recoiled into their shells, the Gunners have misfired. But if Arteta goes after City, based on the last two outings, they might find it easier to play through them. This is going to be a fascinating game. It has actually become somewhat of a derby since Arteta moved from being Pep Guardiola’s assistant to the hot seat at the Emirates.

Two former Barcelona midfield maestros are now in opposing dugouts. Albeit the fact that Arteta only played in the B team.

But the fun starts on Merseyside with Liverpool hosting local rivals Everton at Anfield a day earlier at 1.30pm.

Everton have been decent. But it is difficult to see how they can take advantage of their neighbour’s defensive frailties.

Liverpool’s ominous strike force

A weird observation, though, is that Liverpool have spent an inordinate amount of money bringing in a player to eliminate numbers in Florian Wirtz. Yet, it is the Evertonian that will showcase the best dribbling wizards in the division in Iliman Ndiaye and City loanee Jack Grealish.

Even with their leaky defence, Liverpool have an ominous strike force. Especially with new centre forward Alexander Isak likely to play a major part.

Of course, this being a derby, anything can happen.

Another attention-grabbing fixture is the meeting between Manchester United and Chelsea later at 6.30pm.

Career-defining game

The feeling is that this could be a career-defining game for Ruben Amorim as United manager. His opposite number, Enzo Maresca, seems to have settled his side. While the Portuguese mentor has achieved the opposite.

Don’t be surprised if Carrington pulls the plug if United lose this one despite all the brave talk of “we stand by our manager”.

Amorim has presided over the worst period since Sir Alex Ferguson left as champion in 2013. He surely must be one heavy defeat away from the sack, which blow Chelsea do pack.