The former City legend began his career with Arsenal and the Gunners hold a special place in the ex-Scotland striker’s heart, but the Blues are in his DNA.
He believes City can win the game, but need to play a similar brand of football that brought 10 straight wins at the start of the campaign.
“I’m looking forward to the game because it is between two sides with unbelievable attacking talent,” said Dickov.
“Looking at the players Arsenal have and the form they’re in – Sanchez, Ozil, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott - I think it’s imperative we go back to basics defending, as I think we did against Watford.
“That said, a big part of Arsenal’s success this season had been their defending and Shkodran Mustafi has been one of the main reasons they’ve looked so good at the back – but he’s going to be out for five or six weeks – and I think that could be a big loss for them.
“My loyalties will be with City as they always are and I think we have the players to win this – we’ve shown that in any one-off game, we can beat the best. We did it against Barcelona and we can do it against Arsenal – it’s just about everything clicking at the right time.
“There might be a bit of doom and gloom around at the moment, but it wasn’t that long ago that we’d just won 10 games in a row, and you don’t do that in England if you’re not a really good team. Perhaps we need to look back at how we beat those teams and the problems we caused and take it from there.
“Leicester showed against us that sometimes, if you go back to basics and cut out the individual errors, you rediscover the form you had in the first place.”
Dickov’s opportunities with the Gunners were limited during his time there, but he retains some links with the club.
“I still have contact with Arsenal and recently got some communication from them to go and do some hospitality at a few upcoming games,” he said.
“I still have a big connection with Steve Bould, who was at Arsenal when I was coming through and is now Arsene Wenger’s No.2.
“When I signed for City, Arsene had actually been appointed manager but it hadn’t officially been announced because he had to finish the season with Grampus 8 in Japan. I’ve met Arsene on numerous occasions and he’s lovely guy.
“As for Sunday’s game, I have to go for a City win – I just can’t back against them!”
There will be full coverage of Manchester City v Arsenal on mancity.com!
