Manchester City will be without Nathan Ake with a hamstring injury as they prepare for their match against Arsenal.
Nathan Ake is battling to get fit for the Champions League game against Real Madrid after being ruled out of the Premier League game against Arsenal.
Pep Guardiola has confirmed that the Manchester City defender will be out of action on Wednesday after injuring his hamstring against Bayern Munich last week. Having missed the FA Cup semi-final, Ake will not feature for the game against Arsenal and the coach cannot confirm whether he will be fit for the Champions League clash in two weeks.
Ake has been a key part of City's defence this season, with Guardiola saying after the World Cup that the team could not play well without him. He was replaced by Aymeric Laporte in the final part of the game against Bayern, and the Spaniard was the obvious choice to replace him against Arsenal.
"It's frustrating," Ake said in Munich after the injury. "This season I've had almost no injuries. We'll see how it goes, but hopefully it's not too serious."
City have the second-best defense in the league, conceding just 28 goals in 30 games so far. However, they face the second-best attack with Arsenal scoring 77 goals - just one behind the defending champions - and Guardiola reckons they will have a tough time in games against a team that has led the league in many years. .
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Chelsea midfielder N'Golo Kante in a match
N'Golo Kante is said to have agreed to join Arsenal from Chelsea at the end of the season.
The French midfielder is out of contract this summer and is set to leave after seven fantastic years at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea have had terrible signings over the years, but they really made gold buying Kante from Leicester City for around £32m in 2016.
He has been one of world football's most consistent players since arriving in England a year ago and played a key role in the Blues' success in the Premier League in his first season before returning from injury. injury in 2021 to help them win the Champions League.
Despite his obvious world-class abilities, it is understandable why the west London club hierarchy is reluctant to offer Kante a new contract. His injury record is a major concern and it's hard to justify waiving his salary claim, even though he's arguably the best at his job when he can be.
Even so, Kante is attracting a lot of interest ahead of the summer transfer window.
Both Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona - clubs that enjoy free transfers - are said to be very interested, but the player is not.
Kante would have preferred to stay in England, preferably in London. This means the only logical destinations for him would be Arsenal, Tottenham or Chelsea - teams that would have to agree to a new contract with him. It is hard to imagine the 32-year-old moving to Crystal Palace, Brentford, Fulham or West Ham with all due respect.
That said, if Chelsea, out of all the teams, are not willing to pay what Kante is asking, what will Arsenal or Spurs do?
The latter will probably happen, but a move to the Emirates won't make much sense, although the Gunners prefer to sign aging players from Chelsea.
They bought Jorginho in January for around £12m after Mikel Arteta failed to bring in Moises Caicedo from Brighton, and have also signed Willian, David Luiz and Petr Cech in recent years.
Signing Kante seems unrealistic to me, but Spanish outlet Todo Fichajes believe the player has accepted an offer from London rivals Chelsea. It 'looks like' the former Leicester midfielder will leave the Blues when his contract expires at the end of 2022-23 after initially 'prioritizing' extending his stay at Stamford Bridge.
Kante 'wants to continue in London', the report said, despite offers from Spain and elsewhere in the UK.
And according to their information, Kante has 'agreed' to the 'offer' Arsenal made him 'several weeks ago'.
Gunners boss Arteta was 'insistent' on signing 'for a while' as he did not have a similar player available to him.
The offer on the table is "for the next two seasons", although there is an option for a third year. The France international will benefit from "similar economic conditions" to what he earns at Chelsea.
It is true that Arteta does not have a player like Kante in his squad and it is hard to imagine him playing in the Spaniard's system.
Arsenal's number one summer target will be West Ham captain Declan Rice, who would be an ideal player when he could play in the place of Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka.
On the other hand, Kante clearly possesses incredible defensive qualities but has never really been used as a lone 6, nor in a role like Xhaka that entails being a goal threat.
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