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Football London
Football London
Sport
James Benge

Confirmed Arsenal XI vs Manchester City: Nicolas Pepe starts along with Gabriel Martinelli

Nicolas Pepe has recovered from his knee injury in time to start for Arsenal as they face Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

Pepe starts in a front four that also includes Mesut Ozil and Gabriel Martinelli.

Pepe had been a doubt after suffering a knee injury in Monday's 3-1 win over West Ham, a match where he scored his first open play goal of his Arsenal career.

Hector Bellerin, Dani Ceballos (both hamstring), Granit Xhaka (concussion), Rob Holding (knee) and Kieran Tierney (shoulder) had already been ruled out prior to tonight's game.

Arsenal v Manchester City: Match Preview

Sead Kolasinac replaces Tierney whilst Ainsley Maitland-Niles features at right-back. He had been a late replacement for Hector Bellerin at the London Stadium.

Ljungberg is acutely aware of the challenge he will face even if Manchester City have not been at quite the same level they were in their two title-winning sides. Indeed Pep Guardiola's side have lost as many Premier League games this season as Arsenal.

"It's extremely difficult because, as we said, they are so, so good with the ball," Ljungberg noted. "I have my ideas, how we can maybe try. It's up to us to try to contain areas where maybe they cannot hurt us so much.

"Sometimes if they have the ball, it's a tough team to play against because they are so good at what they do. They have been doing it for a few years.

"It seems like all the players know where to move before the ball gets there. It's hard to defend against them but of course, we will try to put together a game plan where we can combat that and be dangerous ourselves. It's a top team we're playing."

Arsenal XI:  Leno; Maitland-Niles, Chambers, Sokratis, Kolasinac; Guendouzi, Torreira; Pepe, Ozil, Martinelli; Aubameyang

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