Arsenal have so many stars to choose from that coach Mikel Arteta said he doesn’t call the players who are on the bench. Man City, on the other hand, have nothing else to choose from: Erling Haaland will start, of course, and… score. That alone makes this week’s Premier League “Super Sunday” (10:30 p.m., September 21) a contrasting, exciting summit clash.

The main theme of Arsenal this season is the depth of the squad. Almost all the problems that caused Arsenal to finish second in the last 3 seasons have been solved, to the point that it couldn’t be more “beautiful”! Coach Mikel Arteta’s team still showed strength and won when the best players William Saliba, Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz were all injured. Arteta now has a real striker Viktor Gyokeres. Previously, Arsenal often complained that they could not compete with MU, Chelsea, Manchester City … (depending on the time) in terms of the ability to spend money on the transfer market.

Now, exactly half of Arsenal’s top line-up (5/10 players, not counting the goalkeeper) in their Champions League opener are players they just bought in the summer of 2025, plus another player who came off the bench. Arsenal’s squad is so strong and balanced that coach Arteta says he doesn’t have the concept of “substitutes”, it’s just who plays first and who plays later.

The pinnacle of novelty left fans ecstatic: for the first time in history, Arsenal had two players come off the bench and take turns passing the ball to each other to score in a Champions League match (Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard, in the recent 2-0 win at Athletic Bilbao).

The question is: Martinelli and Trossard are so good, why are they sitting out? Yes, Arteta said he doesn’t consider either player a substitute, just rotates them. Believe it or not, it’s up to the listener!

Martin Zubimendi has been brilliant many times – there is nothing strange about this. The only strange thing is that sometimes his teammates are surprised by him (he is a holding midfielder, but he scored 2 goals in the 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest last weekend, as if he were a striker).

Noni Madueke was so good that commentator Paul Merson had to swallow his pride (he said he didn’t understand why Arsenal bought him). Eberechi Eze was the same. Gyokeres is leading the scoring charts for Arsenal. But the trio of strikers Eze, Gyokeres, Madueke were all substituted against Bilbao (and their replacements brought the win).

Who will Arteta choose to “play first” between Eze, Gyokeres, Madueke, Trossard, Martinelli (not to mention Bukayo Saka who is also likely to recover in time to play)? Not easy!

🔥 Man City has the “best ever” Haaland The story on Man City’s side is completely the opposite. There is no need to rack your brain to compare half a dozen attacking stars, coach Pep Guardiola’s job is just to put Erling Haaland’s name on the list of players to play. If anything, he only ponders tactics, and whatever tactics are certainly only aimed at creating opportunities for Haaland to score. Within 10 days, Haaland scored 8 goals in 3 important matches, for the Norwegian team (who are likely to be above Italy in the World Cup qualifiers) and Man City (who crushed MU 3-0 in the Premier League , beat Napoli 2-0 in the Champions League). Guardiola commented: “Haaland is in the best form ever this season, better than when he shone to help Man City win the treble.” It’s not just about scoring goals. His style of play is also admirable. It’s hard to imagine: striker Haaland alone had 6 clearances in his team’s penalty area, in the recent Manchester derby.

The only player on the pitch who has more than Haaland in this statistic is centre-back Ruben Dias (7 times)! Since when has Haaland been so actively involved in defence? Or, how does he remain such a superb centre-forward, when he regularly drops back into his team’s penalty area to defend like that?

Haaland’s goals, expected goals (xG), and shots (per 90 minutes played) figures this season are all the highest they’ve been since he’s been in the Premier League! It’s terrifying: he’s averaging 1.52 “expected goals” per 90 minutes this season. No one has ever reached the 1.00 xG mark per 90 minutes since those statistics began!

While other strong teams like Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea… are eager to strengthen their strikers, as a trendy measure in terms of expertise, it turns out that the best striker at the moment is the old face Erling Haaland, with many interesting new features.

After 4 rounds, Haaland leads the Premier League top scorer with 5 goals. In the previous 3 seasons, he always scored… more (6 goals in the 2022-2023 season, 6 goals in the 2023-2024 season, 9 goals in the 2024-2025 season).

But there are always penalties in those numbers. All five goals this season have come from open play. Experts are waiting to see more to conclude: has Haaland reached his “best ever” level thanks to a new detail in Man City’s style of play that suits him very well? It is the increase in fast attacks, allowing Haaland to accelerate – like in the recent win over MU.

📜  Does Arsenal dare to “play big”?

Whenever there is an opportunity, people often talk about the concept of “teacher and student”, to remind the story of Arteta being Guardiola’s assistant. And of course, only “student beating teacher” is a shocking thing, but no one is surprised when teacher beats student. That is why Arteta was comfortable in previous clashes.

The situation is very different now. Arteta has won two and drawn two of his four Premier League meetings with Guardiola in the last two seasons. Right now, Arsenal are both stronger and more popular than Man City. Arteta’s team has been the second favourite to win the Premier League since its inception – behind only Liverpool. The question is: does Arteta dare to confidently use an attacking style of play when he himself is under great pressure and is expected to win?

Arsenal are the home team in this round of Premier League “Super Sunday”. Importantly, Arteta has two more days to prepare for the big match than Guardiola, after the midweek Champions League matches. And when looking back at the victory at Bilbao in the last round of Champions League matches, there is also an important detail for Arteta to ponder.

It was a game that was almost completely safe for Arsenal. Bilbao only had 2 shots on target throughout the match. On one hand, it was due to the difference in class (Bilbao’s squad did not have any players who had played in the Champions League before). On the other hand, Arsenal were both very good at defending and cautious because they were playing away from home in the opening match.

The solution and attack frequency for the midfield trio Declan Rice, Martin Zubimendi, Mikel Merino is very limited. Zubimendi plays as a pivot while Merino and Rice have very similar playing styles in the role of “number 8” midfielder. Statistics show that: in the 9 times Rice and Merino started together, Arsenal only won 1 match in the Premier League, against weak opponent Ipswich. Coach Arteta, of course, remembers this situation more than anyone else.

But, the “plus point” for Rice and Merino is that they are both excellent in one-on-one situations. When Arteta is playing it safe, he will put both Rice and Merino in the starting lineup. The price to pay is a significant decrease in attacking power. Substitutes are not always successful. Arteta was successful against Bilbao, but failed against Liverpool in the Premier League, when he played defensively and used Merino and Rice in the starting lineup.