Rampant Manchester City seal 15th straight win against Arsenal and equal another club record

No time to dwell on that result as we move onto the second major clash of the afternoon between Chelsea and Manchester United.

We hope you can stay with IBTimes UK for that one.

Full-time

Manchester City 3-1 Arsenal

The petulant Ozil, already on a booking, deliberately barges into Delph and concedes a needless free-kick. He's walking a tightrope late on here.

Four minutes of added time signalled as the oles ring around the Etihad and Ozil loses his cool to become the sixth Arsenal player to receive a yellow.

Gundogan is then caught by Wilshere.

Kolasinac unceremoniously stops Fernandinho in his tracks and is lucky to avoid a yellow card.

Jesus looks likely to notch his second goal on the break, but De Bruyne, announced over the tannoy as the man of the match, cannot squeeze the ball past Koscielny.

Bernardo Silva will get a late run out here as he replaces Sane with just three minutes plus stoppage time left to play.

That's the most in the Premier League. One more than De Bruyne...

That third goal seems to have knocked the stuffing out of Arsenal and City are cruising to a 15th straight win across all competitions.

A double change from Wenger now. Xhaka and Iwobi make way for Jack Wilshere and Olivier Giroud.

Sanchez is the latest player to have his name taken for a mistimed sliding challenge on Silva.

Guardiola sends on Gundogan in place of Sterling.

Fernandinho slips in Silva, who lays the ball across for substitute Jesus to turn home from close range.

Arsenal are absolutely adamant that Silva was offside, so much so that Xhaka, who actually looked to be playing him on, is booked for his protests.

Goal: Manchester City 3-1 Arsenal (Gabriel Jesus)

Otamendi flattens Lacazette and is retrospectively shown a yellow card by Michael Oliver.

Cech makes a brilliant low save to deny Jesus and then has to get down to ensure he is not beaten by De Bruyne at the near post.

City pressing to restore that two-goal advantage.

John Stones makes a strong block as Hector Bellerin looks to fashion another opportunity for Arsenal.

Arsenal reduce the deficit as Iwobi and Ramsey combine to set up Lacazette, who confidently smashes the ball past Ederson from an acute angle.

A goal and a booking in the first nine minutes since the Frenchman came off the bench. Game on.

Goal: Manchester City 2-1 Arsenal (Alexandre Lacazette)

Aguero receives a warm round of applause as he makes way for Gabriel Jesus. No respite for the Arsenal defence.

Lacazette tries to play in Ramsey, but Ederson comes off his line to snuff out the danger.

Arsenal's substitute is then yellow carded for a foul on Silva.

The Coquelin experiment is over as Wenger summons Lacazette from the bench with 35 minutes still to play.

Arsenal need a goal.

A moment of real panic for Ederson as he spills Iwobi's shot. Ramsey barges him over the line and City win a free-kick.

Cech guesses the wrong way and Aguero strokes his 179th City goal in off the post.

Arsenal now have a mountain to climb.

Goal: Manchester City 2-0 Arsenal (Sergio Aguero)

Fernandinho plays a lovely ball inside Kolasinac and Monreal ends up fouling Sterling. The Spaniard is booked and City have a chance to double their advantage from the spot.

Penalty to Manchester City

Back underway. No changes from either manager at the halfway point.

An intriguing first 45 minutes at the Etihad. Arsenal were probably the better team until the goal, since when uncharacteristically profligate City have not made the most of their domination.

The Gunners will surely find it hard to restrict the hosts after the break, but as long as it remains 1-0 they have a puncher's chance, as demonstrated by Ramsey's late shot. Their first on target of the afternoon...

Half-time

Manchester City 1-0 Arsenal

Almost an equaliser from Arsenal on the stroke of half-time. Ederson gets down low to his right and makes a smart one-handed save to repel a quick snapshot from Ramsey.

One minute of added time to be played at the end of this opening period.

Sanchez has been wasteful in this first half. The Chilean's poor delivery from a corner he earned himself leads to another City counter that is ended by Coquelin, who makes a crucial sliding challenge on Aguero.

Dominant City come again after an errant pass from Granit Xhaka.

Walker is the latest man to produce a fizzing low cross towards Aguero that is just about dealt with by Koscielny, who could have scored an own goal. He also looks to have hurt his arm in the process.

Nicolas Otamendi also requires treatment at the other end of the pitch.

Guardiola is furious on the touchline as Sterling breaks forward on a give-and-go with De Bruyne and botches a pass to Sane with only Koscielny back to cover.

Frustrating play by the England winger, who has enjoyed an excellent campaign to date.

The unconvincing Coquelin is forced into a mistake. Why does Wenger insist on opening himself up to criticism like this?

Sterling is then caught on his toes at the back post as Silva arrows a low ball across the six-yard box.

Aguero makes a move for the near post as Sterling receives a long pass from Silva and sees a cross deflected onto the roof of the net by Monreal.

The corner falls to Fabian Delph, whose long-distance drive is blocked by the imposing figure of Kolasinac. Cech scoops up another low pass intended for Aguero.

Hungry City quickly press for a second goal as Hector Bellerin concedes a corner and Koscielny stands firm in the face of more trickery from the fleet-footed Sane.

After seeing an initial effort saved by Petr Cech, De Bruyne plays a one-two with Fernandinho before rifling a left-footed shot across goal and into the bottom corner.

Absolutely lethal. That is City's 50th goal of the season across all competitions already.

Goal: Manchester City 1-0 Arsenal (Kevin De Bruyne)

City controlling proceedings now after that early effort from Arsenal. Lots of possession and patient passing.

City arguably should be ahead as Leroy Sane provides a low ball across the face of goal that is just too far in front of Sterling, who may have got a push in the back from Kolasinac.

Sanchez tries his luck from distance before Aaron Ramsey intercepts a Fernandinho pass and Mesut Ozil drags a shot wide of the far post.

Iwobi volleys over before Arsenal force a couple more early corners. They are taking the game to City just at the moment.

It is worth noting that Wenger has not switched to a four-man defence, but is rather operating with Coquelin alongside Monreal and Koscielny in a back three.

Let's see how that works out.

Walker concedes an early corner, from which City nearly score themselves on the break.

Raheem Sterling speeds forward and finds Kevin De Bruyne, who tees up Aguero for a shot which hits the side netting.

An early warning sign for Arsenal.

Referee Michael Oliver gets the first of this afternoon's two titanic Manchester vs London battles underway.

Arsenal, wearing their black and pink third strip, are kicking from right to left in this first half as we look at it.

A minute's silence will now be observed in memory of all those who have lost their lives in conflict since the start of the First World War.

Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday take place next weekend, of course.

A guard of honour from City scorers from down the years and a rapturous supporter reception as Aguero exits the tunnel after his teammates.

It's now 177 goals in 264 appearances in City colours for the Argentine, who has the best goal-to-game ratio of any striker to play at least 50 games in the top-flight.

In a nice touch, Aguero collects his award from Brook's elderly granddaughter.

Wenger stresses the need for a balanced team selection during his pre-match interview with Sky Sports and reiterates the importance of the counter-attack.

If the social media reaction is anything to go by, Arsenal fans are less than impressed by Wenger's decision to drop club-record signing Lacazette for one of the biggest games of the season...

Wenger seemingly reverts to four at the back, dropping Per Mertesacker and pairing Nacho Monreal with Laurent Koscielny.

Francis Coquelin did not exactly impress against Red Star, but he retains his starting berth in midfield as Alex Iwobi comes in for Alexandre Lacazette.

Sanchez leads the line for Arsenal.

Guardiola makes two changes to the side that beat Napoli, with Kyle Walker replacing Danilo at right-back and Ilkay Gundogan making way for David Silva in midfield.

Official team news coming up shortly. Stay tuned.

Arsenal remain without David Ospina, Shkodran Mustafi and Danny Welbeck, while Calum Chambers is back in full training but will not be available again until after the international break.

It was hoped that powerful wing-back Sead Kolasinac would recover from a recurring hip injury in time for the trip north, although his apparent absence from a final session on Saturday sparked fears that he will miss out after all. Watch this space.

Manchester City have no new injury worries to contend with after the exhilarating win in Naples that saw Sergio Aguero finally move clear of Eric Brook as the club's all-time leading goalscorer.

Long-serving captain Vincent Kompany has still yet to return following his latest calf problem. The experienced centre-back was not named in the Belgium squad for upcoming friendlies against Mexico and Japan and Guardiola hopes he will return to training during the break.

The only other confirmed City absentee is left-back Benjamin Mendy, who underwent surgery on the ruptured cruciate ligament in his right knee in September and is expected to remain sidelined until around the time of the Champions League semi-finals in late April/early May.

"I would like to say to Arsene that this record belongs to him, we are not going to break it. He has to be calm."

Pep Guardiola remains convinced that Manchester City will not match Arsenal's 2003-04 'Invincibles' and become only the second team ever to go through an entire Premier League campaign unbeaten.

However, you have to feel that if any team is ever going to come close to emulating the achievements of that famous squad, then this current City group stand a better chance than most.

The undefeated Citizens have been simply irresistible so far this season, notching up 14 consecutive wins across all competitions and scoring 49 goals by early November to sit five points clear of their cross-city rivals at the Premier League summit.

They equalled the record for the number of points collected after 10 top-flight games at West Brom last weekend and went onto outlast Napoli for the second time in another thrilling contest to seal their place in the last 16 of the Champions League with two matches to spare.

Looking to potentially fight fire with fire this afternoon and stop City from matching another club record for successive league wins in a single season is an Arsenal team that have lost just one of their last 13 matches, winning an impressive 10 of 12.

The Gunners' woeful away record against their top-six rivals under Wenger is well-documented, but it is worth noting that last season's 1-0 defeat at the Etihad Stadium was their first loss at the hands of today's opponents since 2013.

Arsenal's key stars should also be well rested after their long-serving boss continued his squad rotation policy for a goalless draw with Red Star Belgrade on Thursday that sealed their progress to the first knockout phase of the Europa League.

All eyes will be fixed on contract rebel Alexis Sanchez as he goes up against the club that almost signed him in a £60m deal on transfer deadline day and are still pursuing his signature as we hurtle towards the January window...