Charlie Nicholas points out three weak links, predicts Arsenal will lose to Manchester City

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Arsenal get their Premier League campaign back underway this evening as they take on Manchester City at The Etihad Stadium. 

The Gunners will be looking to spring an upset on Pep Guardiola, as Mikel Arteta returns to the club where he began his coaching career. 

It will no doubt be an extremely tough task for Arsenal and for one former Gunner, one in which they will come up short. 

Charlie Nicholas is predicting a comfortable win for City in his pre-match column and the Scottish legend explained three reasons why. 

Namely, those reasons are David Luiz, Shkodran Mustafi, and Sokratis. 

“The reality stares you straight in the face – Arsenal are ninth with 40 points. I look at the table and Arsenal have 13 draws in 28 games, yet they have only lost six all season.

“I would like to be more enthusiastic, but I can’t. You can work with Sokratis Papastathopoulos, David Luiz, and Shkodran Mustafi and get them to improve, but they will not improve by much. Luiz will move on next season and Arteta will know that Sokratis and Mustafi are all seemingly pitching to be sold.”

Whilst the Sky pundit admits Arteta could have used the time off to assess various situations he doubts he will be able to improve the three defenders and believes they could prove a major detriment to Arsenal’s hopes of a positive result against City. 

Arsenal fans will no doubt be hoping their former player is wrong, as a win over City on their return to action could be a massive morale boost for Arteta and his players. 

It would also be the perfect way to reignite a Champions League qualification push.