ARTETA WARNED HE COULD LEAVE ARSENAL ‘IN TROUBLE’ AGAINST MAN CITY AMID PEP ‘MIND GAMES’

Arsenal legend Lee Dixon has warned Mikel Arteta against over-complicating matters when his side face Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday.

Pep Guardiola’s men host the Gunners in a massive match on Sunday, with only one point separating the two sides after 28 games.

Arteta’s ‘biggest headache’ ahead of City vs Arsenal revealed

Arteta’s side currently occupy top spot in the Premier League, sitting above Liverpool on goal difference.

Sunday’s clash at the Etihad will have a big impact on the title race and former Arsenal defender Dixon thinks Arteta should not try to overthink what Guardiola is planning.

Discussing how Arsenal potential game plan, Dixon told BetVictor: “It is a possibility that Arsenal will go to the Etihad and look to play on the break

“Mikel Arteta will be scrutinising last year’s performance when they got beaten 4-1 and he’ll be rethinking his game plan.

“He may look at his team and think they’ve developed and are better than they were last year so they can afford to play on the front foot.

“There will be mind games going on between Arteta and Pep Guardiola.

“Sometimes Pep makes a change and everyone says that he’s overthinking and sometimes that is true, but the majority of the time he is so clever when it comes to just tweaking something that doesn’t seem that different and you can’t work it out.

“Arteta’s biggest headache will be just trying to stay in the moment with his team, rather than trying to overthink what Pep is doing. If you do that you’ll end up in trouble – he’ll see what is happening once the game starts.

“City will set up as if they’re just going to play their normal game and Arsenal have developed enough to adapt to any changes throughout the 90 minutes.”

Dixon, 60, knows what it is like to be in a title race, winning four league titles, on top of three FA Cups, during his time at Arsenal.

Passing on his wisdom, the former full-back has emphasised that sitting top of the table with 10 games remaining is fairly insignificant.

“I think the title race is different this year when it comes to Arsenal and Manchester City,” he added.

“For Arsenal, being top now is fine but it is only really great to be top after 38 games. There is a bit of pressure that comes with it, but I don’t think it really means anything.

“You only get the confidence from being top if you win your next game and stay there.

“If you don’t win and you lose top spot, that is when everyone else piles on and writes you off.

“The players won’t be focusing on the league table, they might glance at it, but it won’t mean anything to them. The real confidence comes from their performances.”

2024-03-28T10:30:29Z dg43tfdfdgfd