Provided we don’t get a major COVID-19 outbreak within the Premier League, the English top flight is now back! The action finally returns with two matches on Wednesday, featuring the four sides that still have a game in hand on the rest of the league. The main event match is Manchester City hosting Arsenal.
Let’s run through the requisite FYIs, from the side of the hosts. We’ll have more, from the perspective of the road side, shortly. In the meantime, you can check out the City Starting XI prediction and the City Restarted Season Preview by going here.
Storylines
Here we go with master versus student- Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta served as an assistant under City manager Pep Guardiola before making the big move to the new gig in midseason.
Manchester City Team News
Winger Leroy Sane has returned to training, as his comeback from a serious knee ligament injury, sustained right before the season began, progresses along. While he’s healthy now, we may not see him in a larger role for this one, as he’s working his way back to full match fitness.
Elsewhere, Claudio Bravo, Joao Cancelo, John Stones or Ilkay Gundogan have so far not taken part in contact drills, but that could just be precautionary as of now. Perhaps we’ll learn of any possible injury in this quartet when Guardiola addresses the media pregame.
Kickoff: Wed June 17, approximately 8:15 pm local, following the conclusion of Sheffield United vs Aston Villa at The Etihad.
Odds: Manchester City 1/3, Draw 22/5, Arsenal 7/1
Arsenal starting XI prediction: go here
Prediction: Manchester City 2, Arsenal FC 1
As always, feel free to post your own starting XI and/or score predictions in the comments section.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
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