Arsenal vs Man City live score, updates, highlights and lineups with Thomas Partey out as Erling Haaland starts
Partey #Partey
Arsenal are without Thomas Partey for their crunch Premier League showdown with Manchester City.
Leaders Arsenal meet champions City in the league for the first time this season, with Jorginho making his maiden Gunners start in Partey’s absence with a muscular injury.
Takehiro Tomiyasu was a surprise inclusion ahead of Ben White at right-back for Arsenal, who are three points above City at the summit with a game in hand.
Erling Haaland was passed fit to start for City, with Nathan Ake replacing Aymeric Laporte in Pep Guardiola’s only change from the 3-1 weekend win over Aston Villa.
Sporting News is following the match and providing live score updates and commentary.
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Arsenal vs Man City live score 1H 2H Final ARS 0 — —MCI 1 — —
Goals:
MCI — Kevin De Bruyne — 24th minute.
Arsenal vs Man City live updates, highlights from the Premier League
24th minute: GOOOOAAAAALLLLL!!!!! Kevin De Bruyne!!!!
City strike first. Glorious finish from Kevin De Bruyne but a howling error from Takehiro Tomiyasu. Ederson pings a clearance downfield and the Japan defender foolishly looks to play a blind pass back to Aaron Ramsdale. De Bruyne reads it and lifts a first-time finish into the goal left footed.
22nd minute: First decent change falls Arsenal’s way. Ake bravely clears a Granit Xhaka cross and Oleksandr Zinchenko swings the loose ball back in. Eddie Nketiah gets up but heads wide. That was an attack built out of pure tenacity as Arsenal snapped into a succession of second balls ahead of their opponents.
21st minute: Bukayo Saka charges into a hard and fair tackle on Nathan Ake. Saka limps back to his feet but he’ll be fine running that off.
18th minute: Ramsdale is back up and running. Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta were able to impart some bonus pearls of wisdom to their players after an intense opening that has been light on goalmouth action.
16th minute: First sniff for Erling Haaland as Riyad Mahrez floats the ball to the back post. He gets there first but can only scuff across goal. It might have been interesting had he tested Aaron Ramsdale, who is down with his boot off having some treatment.
13th minute: Nketiah is penalised for a high boot, which seems a bit harsh given Nathan Ake won the header around his kneecaps.
12th minute: Granit Xhaka seizes possession and quickly looks for Eddie Nketiah. Ruben Dias reads the though ball and gets a convincing block on the shot.
9th minute: Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez are City’s wide forwards tonight but they look to be lining up very narrowly. Getting bodies around Erling Haaland seems to be a key part of the gameplan. Bernardo Silva is penalised for a foul on Bukayo Saka now. You sense this could become a long night for him.
7th minute: Bernardo Silva isn’t penalised for what looks like a fairly obviously foul on Bukayo Saka. Here’s Jack Grealish, sashaying in-field. His attempted pass into the box is cleared behind but Arsenal deal with the corner. Mikel Arteta not impressed about the lack of a free-kick for his team there.
6th minute: Riyad Mahrez nips to the byline after some bustling work from Erling Haaland but Jorginho reads the cutback expertly.
5th minute: Kevin De Bruyne gets his head to Martin Odegaard’s delivery. The Norway playmaker has another go and whacks it out for a throw on the other side. Not his best work.
4th minute: Confident spell of possession from Arsenal, a nice tempo to their work. Ruben Dias shoves Eddie Nketiah in the back and there’s a free-kick about 35 yards out. Very high City line.
2nd minute: Eddie Nketiah gets into the City box and the Emirates roars. Ruben Dias makes the block and Granit Xhaka hacks over from outside the box when the ball bounces his way.
1st minute: Whistles as City kickoff and keep the ball. They go back to Ederson, who launches one towards Erling Haaland. William Saliba wins the header, which already marks an improvement on his weekend work against Ivan Toney.
1 min from kickoff: A handshake and mutual pat on the back from firm friends Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta. All business tonight.
3 mins from kickoff: Boos from the away end for the Premier League anthem. Aren’t new traditions nice? It’s just part of a huge cacophony in north London. This is big and there’s an atmosphere to match.
5 mins from kickoff: The teams are in the tunnel and we’ve got a snazzy light show at Emirates Stadium, as is the way for these occasions nowadays. This is a game that comes with more than enough of its own razzamataz.
10 mins from kickoff: It’s really hard to pick a winner tonight, but Sergio Aguero has stuck $8,000 on City via a collaboration with a gambling partner. Loose change to one of the finest players of the Premier League’s modern era, I guess. Please do gamble responsibly etc, etc.
35 mins from kickoff: Pep Guardiola has been speaking to Amazon Prime about his most notable selection.
“We have many players who can play there — Sergio [Gomez], Rico [Lewis] and now Bernardo [Silva] can,” he said of the Portugal playmaker lining up as a left-back against Bukayo Saka, even if Nathan Ake’s role in this team means it’s not quite as simple as that.
“When you are an intelligent player and can read what is going on, like my lovely Fabian Delph and like Oleksandr [Zinchenko], you can play in other places — it’s because they are intelligent players.”
Zinchenko, of course, is starting for Arsenal tonight after being allowed to leave City last summer. Joao Cancelo would have been a lock-in for such games a month or so ago, but a deterioration in his relationship with Guardiola underpinned a hasty loan switch to Bayern Munich. That sort of carry-on is certainly no way to replace Fabian Delph in Guardiola’s affections.
MORE: Man City lineup vs Arsenal: ‘Overthinking’ Pep Guardiola’s biggest tactics hits and misses remembered
55 mins from kickoff: And here is the City XI. Somewhat surprisingly, Pep Guardiola has stuck with Bernardo Silva as his inverted left-back. Alternatively, that’s a bit mad so it’s entirely what you expect from Guardiola in a game of this magnitude. Nathan Ake, who scored the only goal when the teams met in the FA Cup last month, is the only change from the City side that beat Aston Villa at the weekend, with Aymeric Laporte dropping to the bench.
1hr from kickoff: The teams are in. As expected Thomas Partey hasn’t made it for Arsenal, with Jorginho making his first start since joining from Chelsea on deadline day. Perhaps more surprising is Takehiro Tomiyasu getting the nod over Ben White at rightback.
1hr 15 mins from kickoff: Of course, Manchester City have a high-profile injury doubt of their own. Erling Haaland was substituted at halftime against Aston Villa at the weekend after taking a whack to the thigh in a collision with visiting goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. Pep Guardiola seemed cautiously optimistic yesterday when asked about Haaland’s fitness on Monday. If he misses out, Argentina star Julian Alvarez will be ready to deputise.
If Haaland is available to play, the prolific striker will hope to improve on his record away from home against the traditional big six in the Premier League this season. Across games at Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham, he has a grand total of zero goals. Having 25 over the course of all other league games softens the blow somewhat, but City could do with their attacking talisman stepping up tonight.
1hr 25 mins from kickoff: Since plumping for Chelsea over City, Jorginho has a patchy record against the reigning Premier League champions. His career head-to-head with City, taking in his time at Napoli, reads won four and lost seven, although one of the victories was in the 2021 Champions League final. On that day, Pep Guardiola infamously played without a recognised holding midfielder. In Sunday’s 3-1 win over Aston Villa, he played Bernardo Silva as a hybrid left-back. You can only wonder what Guardiola’s latest teamsheet might have in store for us.
1hr 45 mins from kickoff: Right, let’s cut straight to it. The huge breaking team news concerns reports from the Athletic’s David Ornstein that influential midfielder Arsenal midfield Thomas Partey is set to miss tonight’s game. That means a probable start for deadline day signing Jorginho, who Pep Guardiola knows very well from Manchester City’s prolonged attempts to sign the Italy international in 2018 when he played for Napoli.
2 hours from kickoff: Hello and welcome to The Sporting News’ live coverage of a mouthwatering Premier League clash between leaders Arsenal and champions Manchester City.
Arsenal vs Man City lineups
Long-term absentees Gabriel Jesus and Mohamed Elneny remain out for this match, and Emile Smith Rowe is still working back from a thigh injury.
Thomas Partey is the big absentee with a muscular injury, meaning Jorginho makes his first Arsenal start since joining on deadline day from Chelsea. Elsewhere, Arteta sprung a minor surprise by giving Takehiro Tomiyasu the nod over Ben White at right-back.
Arsenal starting lineup (4-3-3): Ramsdale (GK) — White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko — Odegaard, Jorginho, Xhaka — Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli
The biggest focus for Man City was on star striker Erling Haaland who was withdrawn at halftime during the win over Aston Villa. Haaland has been passed fit to start, with Julian Alvarez primed to step in on the bench if his problem flares up again. Centre-back John Stones remains sidelined with a hamstring injury.
Guardiola had choices to make in the left-back position. It will be filled by a combination of Bernardo Silva and Nathan Ake, with the Netherlands international replacing Aymeric Laporte in the only change to the Xi that beat Villa. Ake will nominally play on the left of a back three in possession.
Man City starting lineup (3-2-3-3): Ederson (GK) — Walker, Dias, Ake — Rodri, Silva — De Bruyne, Gundogan — Mahrez, Haaland, Grealish
MORE: Watch every Premier League match live with fuboTV in Canada
How to watch Arsenal vs. Man City Date Time TV channel Streaming USA Wed, Feb. 15 14:30 ET — Peacock UK Wed, Feb. 15 19:30 GMT — Amazon Prime Australia Thu, Feb. 16 06:30 AEST — Optus Sport Canada Wed, Feb. 15 14:30 ET — fuboTV Canada India Thu, Feb. 16 00:00 IST Star Sports Select 1 JioTV, Hotstar VIP New Zealand Thu, Feb. 16 08:30 NZST Sky Sport Sky Go Malaysia Thu, Feb. 16 03:30 MT Astro SuperSport 3 sooka, Astro Go Singapore Thu, Feb. 16 03:30 SST Hub Premier 1 & 2 (Ch. 221-222) StarHub TV+ Hong Kong Thu, Feb. 16 03:30 HKST Now Premier League TV (Ch. 620-621) Now E, Now Player
UK: This Wednesday evening match in the UK will be carried by Amazon Prime’s streaming service.
USA: The match will only be available on streaming service Peacock.
Canada: Every Premier League game streams live and on demand exclusively via fuboTV.
Australia: Fans in Australia can stream matches live and on demand on Optus Sport.