Arsenal, Man City bid to stake title claim

Arsenal, on the other hand, have solid-as-a-rock, not-going-anywhere Arsene Wenger and sit in a similar position in the table to City, with 33 points to their 32.

“It is a very important game (tonight), it is a game of six points, but you can win and the most important rival with Leicester will stay in the same position”.

Arsenal fans, will Brozovic make you Premier League champions? But Spaniard David Silva will return to pull the strings from the midfield.

Manchester City hope to welcome back top scorer Sergio Aguero, who has missed four games with a heel injury.

The 2014 World Cup victor believes that although he is “currently in the best phase” of his career, his improved statistics are down to players like Oliver Giroud and Alexis Sanchez becoming more clinical.

As for West Ham, they may be missing players but they can still grind out points because of the structure of their team and the hunger and desire they have. Vincent Kompany remains sidelined, along with Samir Nasri, Pablo Zabaleta and Fernando.

It hasn’t always had title implications, but this will be the 186th all-time meeting between these teams. Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne are having brilliant first seasons for Manchester City after their respective moves from Liverpool and Wolfsburg.

These two teams arguably boast the greatest array of creative talent in the Premier League, though City just about edge it, 128 to 106.

The Premier League’s surging television revenue allows even smaller clubs to attract best players from Europe and make England’s top flight more competitive, says Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. “You have to win, no matter who you play”. “We got drawn last time with Barcelona and they are a very good team and win all the titles”.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side haven’t won for four straight away league games, scoring just once during that run, with their title bid suffering as a outcome.

But whilst City have spent a fortune and thus have nowhere to hide from the criticism, Arsenal have barely spent anything since the end of last season, despite being linked with players such as Karim Benzema and William Carvalho.

Defensively they look settled too and I have a feeling the Gunners are going to win.

Asked to name the players who have impressed him most this season, Silva unsurprisingly mentions Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, now unstoppable at Leicester City – but only after unexpectedly singling out a summer arrival at his own club. But I believe now we have shown that what we did at Olympiacos is not a team of no character.