The Gunners have shown quite effective football in the last matches. First, the London club in the Premier League defeated Sheffield United with a score of 3:0 and then issued a ticket to the next round of the Europa League, defeating Slavia on the road with a score 4:0. The victory over the “blades” slightly corrected the standings of Mikel Arteta’s team. Arsenal are now in ninth place. The team has 45 points, but there is still an opportunity to compete for one of the tickets to the European cups. Nobody is talking about the Champions League. The distance to the first four is ten points and given the level and willingness of the applicants, it is almost impossible to do this. But for the sixth and seventh places, which can become quite European Cup, they can still compete. The sixth Liverpool are now seven points away and the seventh Tottenham is five. At the same time, the “Spurs” have already played their match in this round. It’s another matter that Arsenal’s play at Emirates in the current championship leaves much to be desired. In 15 home matches, the Gunners achieved only six victories in their home arena, lost the same number of matches and ended three in a draw. This is only ninth so far in the Premier League. One of the main strikers of Arsenal, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who has scored nine goals for the club in the current league, will definitely not play in the match. In the infirmary he was accompanied by two main defenders Kieran Tierney and David Luis. Perhaps Martin Edegor will not play in the match.
The Citizens are also in a good mood to face Chelsea. Manchester City also secured a ticket to the Champions League semi-finals this week, beating Borussia Dortmund with a score 2:1 in the return leg away. In the last round of the English Championship, Josep Guardiola’s charges lost to Leeds (1:2), but this did not shake the position as a whole. The Mankunians have confidently settled down at the head of the Premier League standings and in the next rounds can secure their next championship title ahead of schedule. The lead over Manchester United is now 11 points. The FA Cup is not one of the team’s priority tournaments. Throughout its history, the “townspeople” became the owner of the tournament only six times. The trophy was last sent to the Manchester City Club Museum in 2019, but this is only the second FA Cup win in 50 years. In the last draw of the trophy, the citizens lost to the future owner Arsenal (0:2) one step away from the final. The Mankunians started the current tournament with a home victory over Birmingham (3:0). Then they passed such representatives of the lower divisions of England as “Cheltenham” and “Swansea” in turn, beating both with the same score 3:1 and in the quarterfinals they were knocked out of the tournament by “Everton” (2:0). The Manchester Citys infirmary is empty. Sergio Aguero may well appear on the field in this meeting.
