Arsenal handed huge blow ahead of Man City Premier League clash in Pep Guardiola boost

Arsenal have been handed a suspension blow ahead of next weekend's clash against Manchester City.

City's Premier League rivals are suffering from an injury crisis with at least six players unavailable, including former City striker Gabriel Jesus, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard, through illness. Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Mikel Merino are also out.

And those problems were compounded on Saturday afternoon during the Gunners' 1-0 win over Wolves. Left-back Myles Lewis-Skelly was shown a straight red card and could now miss next Sunday's clash at the Emirates Stadium against Pep Guardiola's team.

"The referee’s call of a red card for Lewis-Skelly was checked and confirmed by VAR, who deemed his challenge to have been serious foul play," a statement from the Premier League's Match Centre account on X said

When asked about the sending-off, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said: "I think it's that obvious that we don't need any comments today. Hopefully the right thing will happen after today."

On if the club will appeal, he added: "Well hopefully we don't need to. If we have to, it's a really good precedent with what happened with Bruno [Fernandes vs Tottenham] this season. Hopefully.

"Ok we were in a position we shouldn't have been in, at least let's be in a position that we should be in for the next few weeks and allow our player to continue to do his job."

City, meanwhile, have been given a welcome boost after earning a 3-1 win over Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday evening. Guardiola's side are next in action at home to Club Brugge before that on Wednesday as they look to avoid elimination from the Champions League.

Manchester City wrapped up the 2023/24 season with a fourth successive Premier League title, but