Why 'small margins' could favor Arsenal in bid to snap Manchester City losing streak in Premier League

The two giants meet on Sunday with the Gunners feeling confident about their chances of improving in this tie

A place in Premier League history awaits for Mikel Arteta, one he will be desperate to avoid at all costs. Arsenal have lost their last 12 meetings with Manchester City in this competition. One more and they will rank alongside Wigan Athletic (vs. Manchester United between 2005 and 2011) and West Bromwich Albion (vs. Manchester City between 2012 and 2018) as the most consistently defeated opponent in the top flight.

For reasons beyond just his previous association with Pep Guardiola, Arteta's tenure at has in some ways been defined against City. It was as he watched a meek team with diffident support get brushed aside in a 3-0 loss to City, a few hours before the Arsenal hierarchy would formally offer him the job, that he concluded that "the tree is going to shake." The FA Cup semifinal win a half season later in the summer of 2020 offered hope of a brighter future that took several years to fully emerge. Even now though, his former boss keeps getting one over on Arteta.

The results may feel repetitive, even the scorelines have a familiar ring with City generally finding the net three or more times, the full time whistle inviting suggestions of an unbridgeable gulf between these two clubs. It would, though, be grossly over simplistic to imply that nothing has changed in Manchester City's view of Arsenal since they last lost to a Santi Cazorla-inspired opponent in 2015.