Arsenal are missing Nicolas Pepe as he is unwell, which is a further blow to the team. He has looked half-decent this season, at times, so a break in his momentum will underwhelm Arteta.

City are unchanged from the team which beat Norwich last week, which is a very un-Pep thing to do. The Canaries found out how good City can be and Guardiola seems happy to let them do it again, especially with an international break coming up.

Get yourself in the mood for the match today with something I wrote yesterday. It started as a very different piece at 9am on Friday morning.

Related: Missing out on Kane and Ronaldo leaves Manchester City short up front

That Arsenal back four is ... ermmmmm ... interesting. I had forgotten Kolasinac was at the club. He has spent the summer being linked to every man and his dog, as Arsenal look to get rid. He played in midweek against West Brom, which has convinced Mikel Arteta he is the man to keep the City forwards quiet.

Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Laporte, Cancelo, Rodrigo, Gundogan, Bernardo, Grealish, Torres, Jesus.

Subs: Steffen, Stones, Ake, Sterling, Zinchenko, Fernandinho, Mahrez, Doyle, Palmer.

What a Friday it was at Manchester City where the world woke up thinking they were about to sign Cristiano Ronaldo and went to bed confused after a whirlwind of a day that ended with him landing back at Old Trafford.

Whether that will have an impact on today is unknown. City players were already discussing the prospect of teaming up with Ronaldo but are now left wondering if the club can find any striker willing to fill the squad’s void. Luckily for Pep Guardiola et al, they only have to play Arsenal today and they have been pretty mediocre this season against everyone except West Brom.

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