Arsenal boss looking for weakness as Man Utd host Man City

The Manchester derby is clearly the big match of the Premier League weekend, but Arsene Wenger has got his own things to worry about as he prepares the Arsenal squad for the visit of Southampton to the Emirates stadium today.

It is a game that the Gunners need to win and one from which we expect to take all three points, especially aftyer their slow start to life under the new manager Claude Puel. But the fact that he knows Wenger from his time in charge of Monaco may just give Puel a helping hand and we cannot afford to take this game lightly.

So our manager will be fully focused on the job at hand, but when his work is done and the points are hopefully in the bag, the Frenchman will be turning his wise old football eyes and brain onto the clash between Manchester United and Man City at Old Trafford.

Not only is this the clash between the two biggest spending clubs in the world right now, it is the clash between probably the two biggest managers, Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho, and Wenger will be keeping a close eye on how the two perform as well as the teams and individual players.

He said, “The two teams have started well so the game will have more psychological impact than a mathematical impact,” said Wenger. “You could say the team that wins will straight away be branded as the favourites to win the Premier League in May, but it is a bit early.

“But it will be interesting to watch. I am like you, I will watch that game and see a little bit what strengths and weaknesses come out of the two teams.

“I will watch the game again, yes [after our game]. Most of the time [I look out for] the turning points of the game because normally people after the game speak only about the results, but we know inside the game that there are some turning points where a guy missed the final ball, or someone was offside and if he had not been offside they would have been 1-0 up.

“[I look for] the potential of the teams as well, the organisation, the decisions of the managers during the game. All these kinds of things, you are relaxed enough to observe it.”

You can be fairly sure that these two clubs will be right up there at the end of the season, but will Arsenal be up there with them and will Wenger find any weaknesses to exploit?