Manchester City v Arsenal: Premier League – live

Team news: Calafiori starts Both managers have had a bit of a tinker. Pep Guardiola brings in Kyle Walker, Ilkay Gundogan and Jeremy Doku for Rico Lewis, the injured Kevin De Bruyne and the uninjured Jack Grealish.

Riccardo Calafiori makes his full Arsenal debut, probably at left-back, with Ben White only on the bench because of a minor injury. Jurrien Timber should move across to right-back. Leandro Trossard comes in for Gabriel Jesus, which probably means Arsenal will revert to 4-4-2.

Share Updated at 16.26 CEST Preamble You can usually judge the health of a league by its biggest rivalry. Think AC Milan v Napoli in the late 1980s, Man Utd v Arsenal at the turn of the century and Barcelona v Real Madrid when Pep and Jose were in charge. Manchester City v Arsenal isn't quite in that category, probably never will be, but it would make a worthy Champions League final and that's a very good starting point for any football-based ding-dong.

This is season three of a rivalry that began when Arsenal knocked Liverpool off the perch reserved for City's biggest challengers. City gave Arsenal a brutal introduction to life at the highest level, belting them home and away in 2022-23, but last season the only City player to score against Arsenal was Cole Palmer in the Community Shield.

The two league games were cagey and relatively uneventful. Gabriel Martinelli's late goal gave Arsenal a 1-0 win at the Emirates; the return game in March was a 0-0 draw in name and nature, so much so that I genuinely had to check whether I'd liveblogged it or not.

History has recorded that Arsenal needed to win that game, even though they were ahead of City in the table at the time. Paradoxically, most people think a draw would be fine today, even though they're behind City. Different stage of the season, different context, different Erling Haaland.

One thing hasn't changed. City v Arsenal is the biggest game in the biggest league in the world. And that makes it pr-etty, pr-etty big.

Kick off

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