The Premier League-chasing champions host their challengers and current league leaders tonight as Manchester City squares it out with Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium tonight in what might turn out to be a very crucial match in crowning this season's champion. Pep Guardiola's men eased past Sheffield United in an easy 3-0 win over the weekend to reach the FA Cup final where they will face city rivals Manchester United while Arsenal were held to a 3-3 draw by bottom-of-the-table Southampton. Manchester City are still fighting on three fronts as they are also in the UEFA Champions League semi-finals where they have been drawn up against reigning champions Real Madrid. Both Arsenal and City will step on the Etihad turf tonight holding their fates in their own hands as the title race heats up with few games remaining before the league comes to an end.

Fresh from defeating Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich to book themselves a UCL last-four against Real Madrid, Manchester City kept their FA Cup glory alive as Riyad Mahrez single-handedly destroyed Sheffield United at Wembley scoring a hat-trick to send the Citizens to a Manchester derby showpiece event. City now seat at 70 points in the EPL table just five points below the top of the table Arsenal with two games in hand. Guardiola's men are now unbeaten in 16 successive matches across all tournaments winning 13 of them. A merciless Man City host Arsenal having put together a six-game unbeaten run in the Premier League albeit while keeping cleans sheets only in two of those fixtures which offers the Gunners a piece of hope going into the match tonight.

Although Pep Guardiola might be feeling some pride watching his former apprentice become his formidable enemy in the battle for the EPL title, there will be no room for sentimentality on the touchline here, as Arteta somehow attempts to engineer the biggest win of his embryonic managerial career so far. However, the Gunners' biggest weakness is maintaining the lead in the game as they have now twice let it slip off their hands first against Liverpool and again against West Ham and they further had to struggle in the last minutes of the game to secure a 3-3 draw against Southampton. The three draws aforementioned above raise questions about Arsenal's defensive concerns. 

Staring down the barrel of a 3-1 defeat to Southampton, Arsenal managed to pull off one of their customary late comebacks through Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka and at some point even appeared to be headed to secure all three points were it not for the final whistle coming a bit early for them in the game. Arsenal will take confidence in being the best-performing away side so far in the league accumulating 36 points from 16 fixtures on the road conceding just a low 13 goals in the process. The Gunners have also found the back of the net at least twice in each of their last eight top-flight matches both at home and away from home. Arsenal, will, however, take caution in the fact that they have lost each of their last 11 games against Manchester City after securing a 2-2 draw against them back in 2017. Should this trend continue to bedevil the Gunners tonight, they might as well kiss the title goodbye.  

(Image: The Analyst)