This is the year for Arsenal, says Sol Campbell

The Gunners have been without several midfield players for a month now but they key injuries may be with the visitors who could be missing both Vincent Kompany and Sergio Aguero again.

Arsene Wenger remains hopeful about Alexis Sanchez’s chances of playing in Arsenal’s crunch Barclays Premier League clash with Manchester City on Monday. Arsenal won 2-0 at Aston Villa in what could have been a trap game for them, and striker Oliver Giroud scored to make it five goals in his last three games.

However, manager Manuel Pellegrini confirmed on Friday that the man nicknamed Kun, last season’s Premier League top scorer, has been training normally and is set to return at Arsenal.

The figures also highlight the fact that Americans are confirmed as the Premier League’s biggest foreign fans buying resale tickets, being the only country to appear in the top three nationalities of overseas supporters that buy tickets for each Premier League ground. But this Chelsea team has lost four times at Stamford Bridge this season.

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A win against fellow title rivals on their own turf, with all the injury problems, would be a huge morale boost and could kick City’s season back into gear. However, this weekend’s game could provide them with a great matchup.

Isco, 23, was the radar of Arsenal in the summer but they failed to sign him or any other outfield player. Despite City’s dip in form, they remain just one point shy of Arsenal in the Premier League standings. For me it is important to have these big games, it’s nice to play against the best teams; to compete with them is a big opportunity for us.

City would be languishing in seventh, 10 points behind table-topping Arsenal, who have accumulated 21 points from their 11 fixtures shown live so far, while Newcastle’s recent resurgence has also come under the camera’s glare.