Arsenal will play Manchester City this weekend, and the timing might be ideal for the Gunners.
Indeed, City has just demonstrated to the rest of the Premier League that they can be defeated. Wolves defeated them 2-1, and Craig Dawson was unquestionably the Man of the Match.
The centre-back was fantastic against City, and David Seaman quipped on the Seaman Says Podcast that he’d prefer Dawson at the heart of the Arsenal defence for this encounter in order to keep Erling Haaland in check.
Seaman raved about the 33-year-old defender and asked for him to play this weekend for Arsenal.
“I’ll take Arsenal 2-1.” Can we get Dawson for this game to represent Haaland? I know what a game he had last weekend, marking Haaland out of the game and clearing them off the line. But I have to aim for an Arsenal win only to keep the dreams alive and to provide some belief that we can beat them in the league for the first time,” Seaman remarked.
Haaland’s nemesis
As weird as it may sound, Dawson may have Haaland’s phone number.
He didn’t give the Norwegian a single chance against Wolves, and Arsenal will need one of their defenders to match similar performance this weekend.
Of course, Arsenal would prefer to have William Saliba at center-half instead of Dawson, but given how good the former West Ham man was against City last week, the Gunners will want Saliba to take a page from the senior centre-half’s book and try to keep Haaland quiet at the Emirates on Sunday.
According to Alex Crook, Arsenal has reignited its interest in Wolves player Pedro Neto.
The writer, writing on talkSPORT, thinks the Gunners are “back on the trail” of the 23-year-old. Crook acknowledges that Arsenal’s Premier League opponents would be hesitant to lose Neto.
despite that, “their ongoing financial fair play issues mean a sizeable transfer offer would put that resolve to the test” .
However, Gary O’Neil appears to be aware that if Neto can sustain form and stay totally healthy, “bigger clubs will come calling.”
Saka’s injury concerns
Arsenal are now concerned about the condition of Bukayo Saka, who suffered an injury earlier this week.
Even if the 22-year-old is able to return to play soon, the Gunners will be eager to reduce his workload in the following month.
As a consequence, it appears that Arsenal would consider Neto as cover and competition for Saka.
This season, the Portuguese star has one goal and four assists in seven Premier League appearances.
Neto has now made 118 appearances for his club, scoring 12 goals and assisting on 17 others. He has also represented Portugal four times.
Football Talent Scout compared him to Mohamed Salah few years ago, and he’s undoubtedly on the right route to become a star like the Liverpool ace.
Arsene Wenger apparently wanted to recruit Neto for Arsenal while he was still a promising young player.
