Arsenal - Man City: Great battle to open the season

* Arsenal - Man City: 10pm today, on MetaSports.

After letting the opponent pass in the championship race in the 2022-2023 season, Arsenal have significantly strengthened their squad this summer. They spent $ 255 million, the most in the Premier League, to recruit three rookies, including midfielder Declan Rice (128 million), striker Kai Havertz (83 million) and defender Jurrien Timber (44 million). With this investment, Arsenal is considered the number one counterweight of Man City next season.

Not spending aggressively, but with a strong squad available, Man City is still a force that is difficult to overthrow. They will enter the eighth year under the leadership of Pep Guardiola with the luggage of the treble - Premier League - FA Cup - Champions League - last season. Particularly in the English Premier League, Man City has no rival when winning the last three seasons. The Etihad Stadium team added midfielder Mateo Kovacic ($32 million) and midfielder Josko Gvardiol ($99 million) to replace the two pillars who left - Ilkay Gundogan or Riyad Mahrez.

The English Super Cup is the opening match of the season, held annually between the champions of the English Premier League and the FA Cup. But because these two titles belonged to Man City last season, Guardiola's teachers and students will participate in the match as the FA Cup winners and Arsenal as the runners-up in the Premier League.

This was the first time Arsenal faced Man City in the English Super Cup since 2014. At that time, the North London team, under former manager Arsene Wenger, won 3-0 thanks to goals from Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud. This is also the first match between the two teams since Man City overcame Arsenal in the race for the Premier League title last season.

Man City won two of the three pre-season friendlies. However, Guardiola still believes that his team is not at its best. The Spaniard said: "Man City finish the season two weeks later than Arsenal and start preparing for the new season two weeks later. We are not in the best form. Man City often start the season off. But this is a Cup match, hopefully the team will maintain the spirit of winning."

Arsenal have lost just one of their five pre-season friendlies. Compared to Man City, which is full of titles, the army under Mikel Arteta longs for a Cup to kick off the season. Having helped Arsenal win this title in 2020, Arteta is excited at the prospect of touching the British Super Cup again.

"We are very excited to play the Cup game and have a chance to win the title. Arsenal will face opponents that we have to beat. They were the best team in Europe last season. We understand how strong Man City are. and that is also the reason why winning this match becomes necessary," commented Arteta.

Arsenal will be without striker Gabriel Jesus due to the Brazilian international's knee injury and the need to rest for several weeks. Bukayo Saka also missed the Emirates Cup match against Monaco on August 3, but Arteta confirmed the 21-year-old winger has recovered and is available to play. Oleksandr Zinchenko did not play any pre-season friendlies but is also about to get back to his best fitness.

Man City has two injuries. Kevin De Bruyne did not play any pre-season friendlies due to a hamstring injury suffered in the Champions League final last season. Nathan Ake limped off the field in the 2-1 win over Bayern on July 26. The ability of these two players to play is still open.