For the first time this season, the top two in the Premier League will finally meet with one another in what is turning out to be arguably the most unpredictable, exciting and intriguing title race of the last decade.
Arsenal and Manchester City are only meeting in the FA Cup and not the Premier League, but this is still set to be one of the most interesting games of the English season.
The irony in this game is how both City and Arsenal have met in the FA Cup twice in the past six years with Arsenal winning them both. In the league and EFL Cup, the Gunners have lost every other game to total a record of two wins and 12 losses since 2017.
Back in 2020, however, Arsenal got arguably their best win against City this century. It was in the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley, and not just was it a 2-1 win for Mikel Arteta’s men, it was also the first time the Spaniard had faced the side where he got his first start in coaching under Pep Guardiola.
It was an incredible moment for Arteta in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored a goal in either half of a 2-0 win.
During the early years of City’s ownership of Sheikh Mansour, the club went on a rampage of hijacking Premier League players. One of those was Emmanuel Adebayor who scored in his first game against the Gunners for City and delivered one of the Premier League’s most infamous celebrations.
After bagging for a fourth game in a row with a thumping header, the former Arsenal man sprinted the full length of the pitch so he could knee slide into the away fans and celebrate for his new team.
He was, however, handed a three-match ban after being found guilty of violent conduct after deliberately kicking former colleague Robin van Persie.
City moved to the City of Manchester Stadium back in 2003 and played hosts to Arsenal one final time at Maine Road in February 2003.
Winning 5-1 in the final match at Maine Road between these two was one thing, but Nicolas Anelka made this game more memorable by scoring against his former side, three years after leaving Arsenal.
Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry, Sol Campbell, Patrick Vieira and Robert Pires all scored that day for Arsene Wenger’s defending Premier League champions.
The City were defending the Premier League title in 2013/14 when they played hosts to Arsenal in December of that season. The game brought in the most goals between these two in Premier League history, as Theo Walcott managed to score twice before a Per Mertesacker header in stoppage time.
However, six different goalscorers for City across the 90 minutes handed the champions all six points 10 years after the 5-1 demolition at Maine Road when Arsenal was defending the title.
10 years on from this game, the two are right in the title talk once again.