- Man City play Arsenal this Sunday
- Antoine Semenyo wary of City’s league position
- Says they are ‘ready’ for crunch match
Antoine Semenyo has highlighted Manchester City’s impressive form compared with that of Arsenal, but he is still warning against complacency ahead of Sunday.
Manchester City continue to trail Arsenal in the Premier League, but their situation is looking a lot more promising than it was before last weekend.
The Citizens stepped up and delivered a brilliant second half performance at Stamford Bridge, defeating Chelsea 3-0.
Of course, this came after Arsenal’s shock 2-1 loss to Bournemouth which gave City plenty of motivation to get the job done a day later.
Now, Pep Guardiola and his team turn their focus to this Sunday, knowing full well that a victory over the Gunners would make them favourites for the Premier League title.
Antoine Semenyo says Man City are ‘ready’ for Arsenal clash
Man City’s January signing Antoine Semenyo has been previewing his team’s next match and he is feeling cautious about their league position. After all, the Sky Blues are still six points behind Arsenal which means complacency has to be avoided.
However, the winger is aware of Arsenal’s poor form, while City on the other hand have looked at their best over the past few weeks. As a result, Semenyo believes they are prepared for the weekend.
“I feel like we’re ready for the game next Sunday. It’s going to be a big one. Title-deciding, maybe? I don’t know, he told In the Mixer
“It’s going to be tough, don’t get me wrong. They’ve obviously lost against Bournemouth but they’re still top. We’re still chasing. So we have to give them respect in that sense.
“Our form over the last couple of games has been good and we’re playing probably the best football we’ve played in the second half of the season.
“So it’s a good time to play them, I guess. Where they’ve dipped in form, we’ve picked up form, so it’ll be interesting.”
Manchester City have a good reason to be confident
Semenyo’s approach to Sunday’s game is spot on. Yes, Man City need to respect their opponent, but there is no reason to lie down to them and this is not merely due to the Carabao Cup triumph.
Arsenal are a team who have been scraping wins all season and recently, their underwhelming performances have caught up with them. With defeats suffered against Southampton and Bournemouth respectively, there is little reason for Mikel Arteta to feel good.
Whereas City have overcome a rough patch of scraping results, which was then followed by draws against the likes of Nottingham Forest and West Ham.
Now, Guardiola has got his team playing their best football, with quality displayed in both their defence and attack against Liverpool and Chelsea.
It is therefore unsurprising that Semenyo feels the Citizens are ready to take on Arsenal. In fact, it would make no sense if they were not.
Regardless of what the league table says, Man City are the team with all the momentum and a victory at the Etihad Stadium really ought to be achieved considering the circumstances.
City are more focused on themselves than Arsenal
Along with looking ahead to the match against Arsenal, Semenyo touched on how close an eye the City players were keeping on the events of last Saturday.
They were very much aware of what was going on at the Emirates Stadium, but were more interested in preparing for their meeting with Chelsea.
“[I was] at the training ground, getting ready to train,” Semenyo continued. “So the game was on, but no one was really watching, just like walking around doing what they need to do before training.”
Despite this Semenyo was still interested in the match, but it was less to do with keeping an eye on Man City’s Premier League rivals.
“It’s more so Bournemouth for me,” he added. “I spoke to the guys the night before and just said like do us a favour kind of thing, so that was the only reason why I was watching, but we were getting ready for training.”
Ultimately, City’s decision to focus on their own match was the right call and their concentration levels must remain high in order for them to overcome the Premier League leaders.
