Arsenal ended a good week with a 2-0 defeat of Aston Villa at Villa Park last Sunday and may just be playing Manchester City at the right time. French striker Olivier Giroud continues to confound his critics, with his first hat-trick for the Gunners in the 3-0 defeat of Olympiakos in midweek and an early penalty against Villa to make him the third fastest Arsenal player – behind Thierry Henry and Ian Wright – to score 50 goals in the Premier League.

By contrast, Manchester City needed an injury-time deflection to beat managerless Swansea City 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium last Saturday and were similarly lacking in ideas on their last Premier League outing, when beat 2-0 by Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium the previous week. The Sky Blues have drawn failed to win their last four away fixtures in the Premier League and, unless they improve significantly, it’s hard to see that record improving against the in-form Gunners. Indeed, they’ve failed to score against Stoke City, Aston Villa and Manchester United, so there may be some value in backing Arsenal to win to nil.

In search of an early Christmas present, let’s try Arsenal to win 2-0 at 15/1 with BetVictor.

Selections: Arsenal to win 2-0 (15/1 with BetVictor)