{"id":93651,"date":"2023-08-05T08:53:23","date_gmt":"2023-08-05T07:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/arsenal-ready-to-topple-man-city-a-community-shield-preview"},"modified":"2023-08-05T11:00:55","modified_gmt":"2023-08-05T10:00:55","slug":"arsenal-ready-to-topple-man-city-a-community-shield-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/arsenal-ready-to-topple-man-city-a-community-shield-preview","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal ready to topple Man City \u2013 A Community Shield Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Arsenal almost won the Premier League title last season. They stayed top of the table for at least 240 days. It is the most time a team has spent at the summit and didn\u2019t finish with the trophy.<\/p>\n<p>Why? Manchester City.<\/p>\n<p>Pundits\u2019 favourite word to describe Pep Guardiola\u2019s men is \u2018juggernaut\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>The Cityzens steamrolled the Gunners in the final weeks to retain the title for a third consecutive season.<\/p>\n<p>This means they are aiming to do what nobody has achieved in Premier League history \u2013 win it for four years in a row.<\/p>\n<p>A lot has been said about Arsenal\u2019s collapse when the campaign entered the business end last term. One standout reason was a lack of depth to compete with City.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the business end of the season, you need- your best players fresh; your substitutes in good flow and ready to step up in case of injuries or poor form to key players.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf your subs have been playing enough minutes, enough to find their own form, they will slot in easier when there\u2019s a need for them in the run-in \u2014 rather than them being thrown in all of a sudden when the pressure is highest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlso, your key players will be better rested and more impactful. Fatigue affects composure and execution and can be a huge psychological block too. Arsenal experienced all three issues,\u201d Clinton McDubus, a top football analyst and podcaster, said.<\/p>\n<p>Mikel Arteta has gone about his transfer business with vim, spending over \u00a3200m to sign Jurrien Timber (\u00a340m), forward Kai Havertz (\u00a367.5m) and midfielder Declan Rice (\u00a3100m), before his squad flew out for the preseason tour of America.<\/p>\n<p>Arteta was very eager to get in reinforcements early and bed them into his style of play and tactics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s more about trust in the back-ups than anything.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDoes he trust them enough to give them starts and rotate a lot more, without fearing a drop in quality?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat drop in quality will happen no matter how good the bench is if they\u2019re not getting sufficient minutes and enough starts every few games.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPerhaps his signings will give him more confidence in the reserves because some of them would be players he trusted last season,\u201d McDubus explains.<\/p>\n<p>But the first test of how ready Arsenal are to topple City will come against the champions themselves, when the two teams play each other in the Community Shield this Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>The game heralds the new Premier League season. And a chance for an early tug of war.<\/p>\n<p>It does appear that Guardiola\u2019s men are weaker than they were three months ago. Ilkay Gundogan has departed the Etihad as a free agent to Barcelona, while Riyad Mahrez has been lured by the money in Saudi Arabia. Only Mateo Kovacic has joined from Chelsea, with RB Leipzig defender, Josko Gvardiol, set to finalize a move.<\/p>\n<p>Are the Treble winners prepared to go again?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMan City are always there for the taking when it\u2019s the Community Shield. They never really care for it, at least not as much as others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think Arsenal will come in more prepared and probably win, perhaps on penalties. That\u2019s if Haaland doesn\u2019t run riot,\u201d McDubus adds.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\">Nigeria<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Arsenal almost won the Premier League title last season. They stayed top of the table for at least 240 days. It is the most time a team has spent at the summit and didn\u2019t finish with the trophy. Why? Manchester City. Pundits\u2019 favourite word to describe Pep Guardiola\u2019s men is \u2018juggernaut\u2019. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":93650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[1570,2140,1612,3094,254],"class_list":["post-93651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-arsenal","tag-man-city","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Arsenal ready to topple Man City \u2013 A Community Shield Preview - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Arsenal almost won the Premier League title last season. They stayed top of the table for at least 240 days. 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