The final two fixtures of the fifth round of the Premier League will be between four unbeaten teams, with Arsenal having endured successive Premier League north London derbies and Champions League away to last season's Europa League winners over the past week, and will certainly be more attrition than Manchester City at the moment, with the two teams battling bench depth in this meeting. Forest were lucky to beat Liverpool in the first four rounds against a strong Liverpool side, but their attacking prowess was visible to the naked eye and fans were not expecting to keep their unbeaten record for long.
Arsenal have been in a series of tough battles
Manchester City vs Arsenal - No name after the Champions League
Manchester City were the only team to win all of the first four rounds, but like Barcelona in La Liga, Manchester City dropped points in the first round of the Champions League stage, and in the face of the opponents they beat in the Champions League final, Manchester City played very actively, after all, this is only a league stage of the game, grabbing points is more important, it is impossible to play like the final, but correspondingly, their defensive holes have increased.
The international can't stop Manchester City's advance, but once they have the opportunity to counterattack, Manchester City's retreat is also exhausted, especially the combination of left central defender Gvardiol and central defender Dias, who are frequently found by the international to get started. Manchester City's guiding ideology when retreating is to only retreat and not grab, such a strategy can hardly limit the Serie A champions. The chances that were given to both teams were qualitatively similar. Haaland didn't score against a strong side but had at least two very dangerous shots, which is an area he has improved on this season.
Only Manchester City can keep it all the wins
Coincidentally, Arsenal also played out 0-0 in the Champions League and Serie A in midweek, but compared to Manchester City, Arsenal's game was more dangerous, and Arsenal would not have been able to escape without goalkeeper Raya saving a penalty from the opposition centre-forward Retegui and the ensuing header. It seems that it will take some time for Tasheng to re-develop the Champions League blood of the Gunners. Of course, their consumption in the north London derby last week was also the reason for their poor performance.
Arsenal's defence may not be rotated
Arsenal beat Manchester City 1-0 at home last season, their first regular-time win over the Blues in four years, and even at Manchester City's home stadium, Arsenal were able to hold their opponents to a draw, and being able to dominate the two-legged game against Manchester City in a season is a very difficult task for any Premier League side.
Both teams are unbeaten at the moment, and the Champions League in midweek is huge, and I am afraid that this balance will be maintained, and the two teams are likely to limit each other's attacking power in this game.
Brighton vs Nottingham Forest - This is also an unbeaten matchup
As with the previous setup, the two participants in this match are currently unbeaten, which is a real surprise. Both teams have faced strong teams in the first four rounds of fixtures, so the unbeaten run is high, with Brighton beating Manchester United to draw with Arsenal, while Forest handed Liverpool their first defeat of the season in the last round.
Sells was instrumental in Forest's victory
In contrast, Brighton's tactics are closer to the strong teams, and they can almost completely dominate their opponents against mid-table teams. In the last round against promoted Mapswich, Brighton had 21 shots on goal and limited their opponent's number of shots on target to one, but the Seagulls failed to take their chances and were unfortunately forced to 0-0 by their opponents.
Forest's script against Liverpool is a typical weak victory over strong, Forest was in a passive situation throughout the game, but goalkeeper Searles played well to keep the goal open, and at the same time, Forest used the counterattack to score the winning goal. They had just five shots on goal in the whole game, but they had three on target, which was very efficient. But it must also be noted that Forest has only scored 4 goals so far, and the number of goals in a single game has not exceeded 1, and if the opponent scores, Forest will basically not be able to grab 3 points.
Brighton failed to blast the promoted Po goal
With a double win over Forest last season and no European assignments this season, it is incumbent upon them to reduce the number of unbeaten teams to three, with Brighton looking to beat them 3-1.