Tony Pulis cannot wait for Sunday's massive game between Manchester City and Arsenal, and he expects the Premier League leaders to be tested on the flanks. He said both sides have plenty of strengths and very few weaknesses, but he sees City's wide players as the detail that could tilt the contest.
Pulis said Mikel Arteta has won only one major trophy since taking charge of Arsenal in December 2019, the 2020 FA Cup, while Pep Guardiola has built a haul of six Premier League titles, one Champions League, two FA Cups and five Carabao Cups since arriving at City in the summer of 2016. That record is part of the reason the meeting feels so big. City have rediscovered the edge that made them fearsome in previous title runs, and Pulis said their wide players have come back into vogue in recent weeks.
He described the type of winger he means as the kind of fast and skilful players who keep running at defenders for 90 minutes, calling them “leg-beaters.” Riyad Mahrez used to be a great outlet for Guardiola’s teams, Pulis said, but City now have two fantastic players in the wide positions and are frightening teams again with Antoine Semenyo, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki. His view was plain: Arsenal’s full-backs will need their “A game” if they are to cope.
That makes the tactical argument for Sunday clearer than the league table. Arsenal have been the best team in the Premier League so far this season, but Pulis said Manchester City were written off by experts in the media before finding their X-factor again. The turnaround has been helped by January arrivals, including Semenyo, whom Pulis said City signed from Bournemouth for £65m. The 26-year-old Ghana international gives Guardiola another direct threat, and recent evidence suggests the wide men are once again central to how City break games open. For readers who want the form guide behind that surge, City’s recent attacking outbursts have already been visible in wins such as the 4-0 rout of Liverpool and the performances that brought praise for Cherki against Chelsea.
Arsenal can match City in almost every area, which is what makes the game feel so finely balanced. But Pulis’s warning cuts to the part of the pitch where matches are often decided: if City get their wide players isolated against Arsenal’s full-backs, Guardiola’s side can still make even the best defenses feel as if they are sliding backward.
