Arsenal will have to wait and see whether or not they will face a Manchester City side with Erling Haaland in the starting lineup or not on Wednesday night.
The Norwegian hitman went off with a knock during the 3-1 defeat of Aston Villa at the weekend, leading to question marks over his fitness ahead of the big top of the table clash at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday. Haaland has been spotted in training, but there is no confirmation as yet as to if he will be in Pep Guardiola's starting lineup for the clash.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Guardiola was specifically asked about Haaland's fitness and was non-committal. He said: "We train this afternoon. Right now I don’t know. Yesterday was about recovery from Aston Villa. That’s all."
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Haaland has notched an incredible 25 goals in 21 Premier League games for City this season, but has gone off the boil in recent weeks somewhat, with no goals in his last three appearances in all competitions and only netting in two of his last eight outings.
Still, Arsenal will be more confident if he is not in the starting lineup that they can extend their lead at the top of the table to six points. Victory for City, however, would take them top of the Premier League table by virtue of goal difference, albeit the Gunners would still have a game in hand.
Guardiola had previously stated he thought Haaland would be fit to face Arsenal, with City making a point of showing him in training on their Twitter page. Guardiola said after the Villa win: "Erling has a kick and we will see. We will assess him in the next few days to see how severe it is. At halftime I spoke with the doctors to see and they said maybe at 3-0 we don’t need to take a risk and I agreed with the doctors.
"If the score was more tight maybe I wouldn’t do it. I think he’s not injured but tomorrow we will see. Hopefully he can play there on Wednesday. If he’s not ready or it’s a risk he’s not going to play."
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