MARTIN KEOWN: Can Rob Holding handle Erling Haaland if Man City go long against Arsenal?

Wednesday night's winner-takes-all showdown between first and second in the Premier League will be a Total Football feast of passing, creativity and technique.

It's the type of match that players dream about; the sort of night you could spend your whole career waiting for.

To succeed you have to play without fear, be free in your minds, and embrace and love this challenge. Do your job on the pitch, first and foremost, and trust that your team-mates will do theirs.

Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta are cut from the same cloth. Guardiola is the master tactician while Arteta is no longer his apprentice but instead a fully-fledged title contender in his own right.

They share the same philosophy and tactically position their teams as if sitting at a chess board, with Guardiola out-manoeuvring Arteta in their two previous meetings this season.

City's 1-0 FA Cup win in January was fascinating as both sides mirrored the same shape.

To stop City from building attacks from the back, Arsenal pushed up against them. Kieran Tierney, the so-called left back on the day, was going man-to-man with his opposition inverted full back, Rico Lewis.

To beat Arsenal's press, City went long to Erling Haaland, who was locked in a battle with Rob Holding. Holding was booked for a foul on the City striker and replaced at half-time by William Saliba, who is more mobile.

With Saliba injured, will Arteta be prepared to play in the same way? That is a dilemma for Arsenal's manager. He is not as prone to surprising us as Guardiola in major matches.

With fewer options to hand, it is unlikely but not impossible that Arteta might wheel out a brand-new shiny system to help protect Holding against Haaland.

Ake loss will boost Saka

To understand how unpredictable Guardiola is as a tactician, you only need to look at the last time these teams met in a 3-1 Premier League win for City in February.

Bernardo Silva started the game at left back but finished it as a right winger! That was a big ask for Silva as he was tasked with dealing with Arsenal's two most dangerous players in Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard in swapping between defence to midfield.

Once Guardiola made a mid-match switch, moving Nathan Ake to left back, City improved.

Ake slapped the handcuffs on Saka that day, as he did in City's FA Cup win a month earlier. It is a huge blow for City that Ake is injured but good news for Saka.

Beware of deadly duo

One non-negotiable for Arsenal is that they need to stop the link-up between Kevin De Bruyne and Haaland.

The Belgian has assisted eight of the Norwegian's goals this season, making them the Premier League's most lethal partnership.

As soon as De Bruyne gets on the ball, Haaland is on the move. Arsenal need to limit De Bruyne's influence, much like how City will want to stop Odegaard from feeding Saka and Gabriel Martinelli.

Arteta's history boys

Arsenal deserve great credit for getting themselves into this position. If they win the Premier League, they will be the youngest team ever to do so, while Arteta has also made the fewest changes to his XI this season.

Arsenal's squad is significantly smaller than City's and yet they're going head-to-head for the title.

Credit must go to Arteta and his staff, who have brought back the winning culture to Arsenal. It was missing for some time. But I look at this team and feel like I'm seeing the old culture.

Going to Manchester reminds me of 2002 when we went to Old Trafford to seal the Premier League title. On Wednesday night, if Arsenal can defeat City in their own backyard, this young team will give themselves a clear run at making history.