ARSENAL and Man City could end up playing each other five times in the space of a month as the title rivals compete for multiple honours.
The Gunners lead the Premier League table by just six points after City’s dramatic 2-1 win at Liverpool on Sunday night.
Mikel Arteta‘s men are on a collision course with City, knowing they will face old mentor Guardiola at least twice this season.
First, Arsenal play City in the Carabao Cup final on March 22 when the season’s first piece of silverware will be up for grabs.
Then, they travel to the Etihad on April 18 in what will be a crucial title showdown for the title race.
But there’s a possibility both teams will meet before then as the fifth round of the FA Cup takes place on the weekend of March 7/8.
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Both teams are still in the competition, with Arsenal hosting Wigan and City travelling to Salford in the fourth round.
The quarter-finals of the competition take place on April 4/5 before the semis on April 25/26 and the final on May 16.
The two teams could also meet in the Champions League, given they both qualified automatically for the last-16.
They won’t meet in the next round, but they could face each other in a two-legged quarter-final on April 7/8 and April 14/15.
There’s every chance they could be kept apart until the finals of both the FA Cup and Champions League, should both teams continue their cup runs.
And City boss Guardiola even spoke about the prospect of facing the Gunners a number of times before the end of the season.
He said this week: “It can happen. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the Champions League, and in the Premier League, the fixture is there.
“When the good teams arrive in the latter stages at the end, maybe you can face it. I love it, especially when you play finals.”
Arsenal are desperate to end their 22-year Premier League title hoodoo as they bid to finally overcome bitter rivals City this season.
City ousted them in the title race twice in the last three seasons – first in the 2022-23 season, where Arsenal led the table by eight points.
Guardiola’s men would end up winning the title by four points that year, before edging the Gunners by a two-point margin in 2023-24.
Arsenal then battled Liverpool for last season’s title but finished on 74 points, ten points off the Reds.
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