League cash has made smaller clubs more competitive, says Wenger

The study also revealed that Americans are the Premier League’s biggest foreign fan base buying resale tickets, and the U.S. is the only nation to appear in the top three nationalities of overseas supporters that buy tickets for each top flight club.

As Arsenal and Manchester City prepare for the top of the league clash on Monday, it has been indicated that the two teams are now getting some of their injured forwards back.

With Jose Mourinho being shown the door by Chelsea, both Arsene Wenger and Manuel Pellegrini could be forgiven for affording themselves a wry smile given their history with The Special One.

While looking to achieve the right balance between defence and attack, midfielder Aaron Ramsey has vowed Arsenal will go on the offensive as they target only a second home win in City’s last seven visits.

Aguero won’t be match sharp, which is a concern, but given his latest injury was an impact one and not his usual muscle problem, I think he’ll start and play around about an hour.

The Frenchman believes that consistency over the course of the season is the best measure of that quality in a team, and with Arsenal now 5 points behind leaders Leicester, tonight is a chance to close that gap on this season’s surprise package.

To perform well, to be at their best, Arsenal need to have the ball. They tried that at Bayern Munich in the Champions League last month and got battered. Their only option is to try to out-score their opponents. However, their star striker, Sergio Aguero, may be fit enough to play after being out for few weeks.

“But Arsenal can’t rely on them – they have to plan for the rest of the season without Cazorla, Coquelin, Wilshere and Welbeck”. But they’ve stuck together – and the return of Ramsey has been key. “He has a great personality that is going to help him a lot”.

Ozil also ruled out a return to the Bundesliga in the near future.

Arsenal keeper Petr Cech will be hoping he can make an eighth top-flight shutout of the season to surpass David James’ record of 169 Premier League clean sheets. If they fail to find the net at the Emirates, it will be the first time in nearly 10 years that they have gone four straight away league games without a goal. But, on Monday Night Football, I reckon it will be the Gunners who fire.