Kolo Toure tells Arsenal how to exploit possible Man City weakness in crucial title-decider
According to Kolo Toure, the key to Arsenal beating Manchester City in their upcoming Premier League match could be their wingers.
The two teams are currently top contenders for the title and will face off at the Etihad Stadium in ten days. Toure, who has played for both Arsenal and City, acknowledges that Guardiola’s team is difficult to beat when in top form but also believes they have vulnerabilities when it comes to defending out wide.
City is currently four points behind Arsenal in the league standings, but their superior goal difference means they are still very much in contention for the title.
Speaking about City to Sky Sports on Saturday evening, Toure said: “The space to hurt them when they play that system is on the sides. On the two sides we can see it is quite open.
“But, the problem with that, the thing that City does well, is that they’re very good on the ball and they don’t lose easy balls – it’s very hard to counter them.
“What they want to do really is have an overload on the middle, you can see they have four midfielders and when they play three in midfield, this three in midfield have to decide what they do. If they go man-to-man there is always one man free, if they go tight on the middle [Manuel] Akanji can go straight to the side and [Bernardo] Silva can go one-v-one with this side.
“It’s quite difficult to stop them but there is one team who is doing that very well against them – Arsenal, when they played them at the Etihad [in the FA Cup]. Arsenal went man-to-man and what Man City have done in that moment is they play long to [Erling] Haaland on top there. I think the goal they conceded came from that.”
Toure went on to say that Arsenal’s success in the upcoming match against Manchester City could hinge on the performance of their wingers, specifically Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka who are usually deployed on either side of the pitch.
He added: “The Arsenal wingers are fantastic players, they are quick, they are strong, they are players who can score goals and they can dribble. Any player, one-v-one, they can do it.
“Two-v-one, they can still do it. I still feel like this area will be vital but when I’m thinking about the last game they played against each other, that was the first time I’ve seen City struggle a lot, because I could see Arsenal were on top of them.
“Arsenal made a few mistakes which caused them to lose the game, but I still believe that [next meeting] will be a tight, tight, tight game. For me, Arsenal is one team who can beat Man City.”
Kolo Toure tells Arsenal how to exploit possible Man City weakness in crucial title-decider