ARSENAL and Man City will lock horns on Sunday in a title clash for the ages.
Ahead of the heavyweight head-to-head SunSport have taken a look at how much both clubs splashed on their likely starting lineups.
Man City are often hit with the stick of their deep pockets when fans discuss their incredible squad depth and growing trophy case.
But unbelievably the likely XI that Pep Guardiola will send out to the Etihad cost LESS than the team Arsenal are expected to field.
Going off the side that City played in their last title battle against Liverpool, just before the international break, their team cost a whopping £413.4m in transfer fees.
However with first-choice keeper Ederson (£34.9m) out of action for this weekend’s clash it will almost certainly be the free acquisition of Stefan Ortega who will take his place in-between the sticks.
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That change in itself brings the Cityzens’ starting XI cost down to £378.5m.
Add to that the injured Jack Grealish, Man City’s record signing who cost a staggering £100m.
Erling Haaland’s relative bargain price tag of £51.4m keeps the cost of City’s team down while a number of cheap finds go along way to offset the £62.5m spent on Rodri.
Phil Foden (free), Julian Alvarez (£14m) and Manuel Akanji (£15.1m) have all cemented themselves as regular starters in Pep’s system despite costing the club pennies in comparison to other stars.
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There is of course the caveat that City will have a monstrous amount of talent adorning the soft leather of their bench on Sunday with stars such as Ruben Dias, Joski Gvardiol, Jeremy Doku and Matheus Nunes likely to start on the sidelines.
Those four alone cost City a combined £250m and have become rotation players at times this season.
Arsenal will likely line up with a team that cost the Gunners £12.5m MORE than Man City for the clash.
Mikel Arteta’s predicted XI is expected to combine for an eye-watering cost of £391m.
A huge chunk of that fee comes from one player following Declan Rice’s £105m transfer from West Ham this summer, although it’s fair to say the England star has represented good value for money since his arrival.
While fellow summer signing Kai Havertz was also a big-money acquisition at £65m from London rivals Chelsea.
Bukayo Saka (£0), William Saliba (£27m), Gabriel Magalhaes (£27m) and Martin Odegaard (£30m) are all bargain buys for the Emirates outfit who would be worth far more if they were to be sold today.
Gabriel Martinelli cost Arsenal just £6m and would bring their starting XI cost down if he were fit for this weekend’s title clash.
However with doubts over his fitness following a cut on his foot, Arteta may opt to choose Leandro Trossard on the left hand side instead.
Trossard cost the north Londoners £26m when he arrived from Brighton and raises the cost of their predicted XI by £20m.
Arsenal could also chop and change by using two of the stars they snatched away from Man City last season – Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko.
The former Cityzens cost Arteta and Co a combine £77m when they jumped ship to join their former coach in the capital.
While Arsenal will also be likely to have £50m midfielder Thomas Partey on the bench as an option should they want to shake things up.
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Fans of both teams don’t care about the money their clubs have dropped on attracting the world’s best talent to don their colours – nor should they.
Instead it’s all about what happens on the pitch and these two side have set the bar with their football for the past two seasons with Sunday expected to be no different when they come to blows.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
