Wilfried Bony will be perfect back-up for Sergio Aguero at Manchester City, says Jamie Carragher

In his weekly column, Jamie Carragher has his say on the main talking points ahead of Sky Sports' Super Sunday clash between Premier League champions Manchester City and Arsenal.

The former Liverpool and England defender looks at how Arsenal will approach the fixture, their goalkeeping situation and how Yaya Toure’s absence will affect City.

Carragher also assesses how new signing Wilfried Bony will fit into the City line-up.

City made a big move in the transfer market this week by signing Wilfried Bony from Swansea City. How do you think he will fit into the line-up?

I think Sergio Aguero is so susceptible to injuries at times and struggles to come back and be firing straight from the off, that Bony is a ready made replacement.

I am sure they will play together at times and we know that Pellegrini likes to play two up front. Edin Dzeko hasn’t been his normal self recently but David Silva is playing that position off the front and was outstanding at Everton last week.

Live Ford Super Sunday

I am sure Bony will play lots of games. At this moment I think he would be ahead of Stevan Jovetic while Dzeko has not been the same player he was towards the end of last season.

I don’t think they have bought him to be fourth choice striker so I imagine he will be right in the firing line as soon as he is available. When it comes to playing Barcelona in the Champions League next month I think it could be a problem playing two up front in a game like that. It’s caused them problems in the past in Europe, but you need a big squad.

Aguero could be out and may not be fully fit so you need options and Pellegrini has that now. He has played two up front in Europe and may do it again in the home leg but it will be interesting to see how they develop as a partnership.

Bony won't be available this weekend as he is away with Yaya Toure at the Africa Cup of Nations. They haven’t won a Premier League match without Toure since April, how big a loss is he for them?

It’s massive for them. We talked at the start of the season about how he wasn’t himself after the World Cup but he has still got a lot of goals, so he is still having a good season and will be a big miss. His goals are what they will miss more than anything else.

They still have great physicality and power in the midfield with Fernandinho, Fernando and Frank Lampard, who will come on at some stage and maybe provide the goals that Toure usually gets. They have a big squad but he is certainly a miss.

The last time these teams met at the Etihad just over a year ago City ran out 6-3 winners. How do you think Arsenal will approach the game this time?

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

I don’t think Arsene Wenger’s style is to worry too much about the opposition. What he has done over the years has proved successful and I am sure he will go there and think if they perform well they will cause City problems. They do have fantastic players but so do City and I can see them causing Arsenal big problems.

One of the concerns for Arsenal is still the defensive midfielder position, which Wenger has wanted to fill for the last few years. Arteta is the captain but I don’t think it is his ideal role - he was always an offensive or creative midfielder at Everton - and Flamini is getting old now and I don’t think he is quite at the level required for Arsenal in that position. So they have to fill that position in the summer.

Arsenal have been linked with Morgan Schneiderlin in the past, do you think he would be the ideal player to fill that role?

He would be the perfect type of player. A lot of clubs have been to Southampton and taken their players - unfortunately for Southampton they are not one of the giants so players will always move on.

You imagine Schneiderlin will move on in the summer because he is playing so well and Southampton are, too. I am sure they will get big money for him and that is the type of signing that a club like Arsenal needs, to fill that role.

What about the goalkeeping situation at Arsenal – David Ospina made his Premier League debut last weekend against Stoke with Wojciech Szczesny on the bench, how do you see this developing?

I think Ospina will keep his spot this weekend. Wenger said he took Szczesny out after the poor game at Southampton because he needed a rest, not just physically but mentally. There was a lot of talk about stuff behind the scenes but Ospina has come in and hasn’t done too much wrong.

He wasn’t troubled too much last week so I think Wenger will stick with him and take Szczesny out of the firing line for a few weeks. As a defender you would like to have the same person behind you all the time but if Szczesny is playing poorly and another keeper comes in and is playing well you have to go with that.

But I imagine at some stage over the next few weeks Szczesny will get his place back because I think Wenger still sees him as his No 1. He is just giving him a bit of a breather.