EFL Cup final this Sunday 

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The first silverware of the season for Premier League clubs is up for grabs at Wembley this Sunday, as Manchester City take on Arsenal in this season’s EFL Cup final. The two clubs occupying the top two positions in the league face off yet again. Pep Guardiola’s team recently crashed out of the Champions League to Real Madrid and currently sit nine points behind the Gunners in the Premier League, but have a game in hand and Arsenal have to play City at the Etihad.

For Mikel Arteta’s team, the extremely unlikely feat of the quadruple does still remain alive, and should they overcome the Sky Blues this weekend, why not dream? They certainly have favourable draws in both the FA Cup and Champions League. Both sides boast star-studded squads – in fact, they have two of the three most valuable squads in the world – and with this in mind, we turned to our audience to try and determine the best Man City/Arsenal combined XI.

Trying to predict any Guardiola line up is always a headache, and due to the game being in a cup where both managers have tended to play slightly more fringe players, it gets even harder. However, we did our best to predict each team’s line-up, and then put each position head-to-head and asked our Instagram followers to vote for who is better to form an XI. Let’s take a look at the results.

Manchester City / Arsenal combined XI

In between the sticks, Italian Gianluigi Donnarumma beat David Raya, taking 62% of the vote. Of course, shortly after we put out the poll, Guardiola confirmed that James Trafford will start for Man City in his press conference. At right-back Man City’s Matheus Nunes beat Ben White with 61% of the vote – Jurriën Timber is expected to be injured. It was a clean sweep for Arsenal at centre-back, with Gabriel beating Rúben Días with 71% of the vote, whilst 83% of people voted for William Saliba over Abdukodir Khusanov – Marc Guéhi is ineligible. Piero Hincapié completes the back four after taking 57% of the vote against Rayan Aït-Nouri.

In midfield Rodri beat his compatriot Martín Zubimendi, taking 68% of the vote. The rest of the midfield is comprised by Gunners. Declan Rice took 77% of the vote against Bernardo Silva, whilst Eberechi Eze won 73% of the vote against Nico O’Reilly. Guardiola could opt for Phil Foden or Rayan Cherki in that position instead, but O’Reilly felt like a safer option – especially based on the way he set up at the Emirates earlier this season.

The entire front three is comprised of Man City stars. Jérémy Doku took 75% of the vote against Leandro Trossard. On the other wing Arsenal star Bukayo Saka actually narrowly missed out, with Antoine Semenyo winning 53% of the vote. Up top, it was something of a landslide, with Erling Haaland taking 81% of the vote against the Gunners’ Viktor Gyökeres. In total, six Man City players made the XI compared to five for Arsenal.