On Sunday, Hector Bellerin is almost certain to start at right-back for his club Arsenal against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.

A fact that is less known, however, is his entire summer was spent rejecting overtures from the Citizens, offering him a substantial raise on his current deal and his club a good chunk of the transfer budget that they would need for the summer.

The young full-back’s decision not to follow in the footsteps of Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure, Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy and Bacary Sagna, all of whom made the switch in an ‘airline deal’ from the Emirates to the Etihad augurs well for Arsenal, who for once did not have to sell one of their prized assets to their newly-minted league rivals.

Advantage Gunners?

Sunday evening’s game may be at the Etihad, and Arsenal may have registered a 2-0 victory at the same ground in January 2015 but for the first time in a long time, the Gunners look like clear favourites, heading into a tough Christmas fixture against the Sky Blues.

Of course, Arsenal’s midweek loss to Everton via a late Ashley Williams header and City’s facile 2-0 win over a dour Watford coupled with the visitors boasting a lengthier injury list than the hosts may suggest otherwise but it has been anything but smooth sailing for City in recent weeks.

Five wins in 16 matches since a 3-1 away win over Swansea in the league does not represent the best of form for the hosts with that win over Watford also their only home league win five. Prior to the Hornets, Chelsea had come to town and had blown them away with three counter-attacking second half goals.

Problems all over the pitch

The fracas at the end of the Chelsea match not only cost City a fine, but also two of their key players as Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho were sent off, the former serving a four-match ban while the latter will be missed for three games.

The summer acquisitions for the defence, John Stones and Claudio Bravo, are experiencing a run of form which can kindly be described as ‘indifferent’. That is putting it mildly but the duo have failed to comfortably integrate themselves into the first team at City.

Guardiola’s insistence that City stick to tiki-taka principles has done more harm than good to the pair’s insistence as evident in the game against Leicester City where the defending Premier League champions had gone three goals down within 20 minutes.

Bravo has committed several errors while distributing the ball out from the back while Stones’ erroneous passing led to Vardy clinching his hat-trick. The 22-year old has looked nothing like the 47.5 million quid that City shelled out on him making him the second-most expensive defender of all time, with his position suspect on more occasions than one.

The Bean Boozled challenge is the least of Johnny’s worries.

Will Sanchez and Ozil come good?

When Mesut Ozil’s not busy playing on the PlayStation, the German is a damn fine architect, pulling the strings for Arsene Wenger’s men, especially for buddy Alexis Sanchez, in damn fine form himself. The Chilean has 12 goals to his name, only one behind the league’s top scorer Diego Costa.

With primary enforcer Fernandinho missing, these two could give City the run-around, given that Ilkay Gundogan has also been ruled out with what is expected to be a long-term knee injury.

Instead, they will be up against Fernando and Yaya Toure, the Ivorian enjoying a renaissance after initially having been frozen out of the first team by Pep Guardiola. The two defensive mids did well against Watford, but Arsenal will be a different kettle of fish altogether.

Iheanacho and his promise

The 20-year old Nigerian Kelechi Iheanacho has generally been solid whenever called upon to replace Aguero. He scored in the Manchester derby with Aguero missing through injury. Once again, he finds himself at the centre of a big game with City’s Argentine talisman suspended.

Arsenal’s defence will be missing Shkodran Mustafi, but the pairing of Gabriel Paulista and Laurent Koscielny should not merely focus their efforts on the Nigerian striker; instead it’s his support cast that they must be wary of: David Silva and Kevin de Bruyne are City’s two most crucial players if they hope to get a positive result from this game.

In a lean phase for City, de Bruyne has been their saving grace as the Belgian has contributed ten goals and assists to Pep’s cause. With Aaron Ramsey and Santi Cazorla out, the former Wolfsburg man may just sniff a chance against the combustible Granit Xhaka.

Lastly, Ozil failed to put in a challenge against Williams, effective costing Arsenal the game but was the man of the match when these two sides met at the Emirates in December, registering two assists as the home side won 2-1. With a weakened midfield, the last thing City need is the German Rolls-Royce of a playmaker with his tail up.