Fresh from battering Southampton in their last Premier League game—then edging out Montpellier in the Champions League— Arsenal will be full of confidence as they prepare to travel to the Etihad Stadium.

Manchester City, on the other hand, have drawn and lost their last two games. Losing to Real Madrid isn’t anything to be ashamed of, but they had their chances to win and failed to capitalise.

City will hope that a victory here can spark their league campaign into action after a series of underwhelming performances.

Where: Etihad Stadium, Manchester, England

When: Sunday, September 23, 10.30 a.m. EST

TV/Live Stream: Fox Soccer Channel 

Manchester City

The Premier League champions will be smarting after their loss to Madrid, especially after conceding two goals in the final five minutes.

Yaya Toure will look to continue his excellent form from that encounter, while Joe Hart will hope for substantially less to do between the sticks. Hart was the only thing keeping City in the game in the first half, making a string of saves to deny Cristiano Ronaldo.

His manager was far from impressed, however. After Hart sought to absolve himself of blame for the late goals, saying that they “won and lost as a team,” Roberto Mancini had other ideas.

“Joe Hart should stay in goal and make saves. If anyone should criticise the team it should be me, not Joe Hart. I am the judge, not Joe Hart.” (Via The Belfast Telegraph).

It was a strange move from Mancini, especially given how well Hart had performed. However, the post-match interview is never the best time to make clear judgements of a manager, especially after a game as tense as this one.

Mancini’s other criticisms of his team were correct, and they would do well to avoid repeating them on Sunday. City defended very deep towards the end of the Madrid game, keeping themselves under constant pressure as the minutes ticked away.

This isn’t a mistake they can make against Arsenal. Robin van Persie may be gone, but the Southampton game showed they still have plenty of players capable of finding the net.

Vincent Kompany will be key for City as they look to get their season moving. If the defence can keep their shape and play up a bit more, City should look to run everything through the midfield, again looking to utilise Toure whenever possible.

Arsenal

Arsenal suffered a similar situation at the end of their European encounter, only they managed to hold on for the win. Montpellier gave them a real test as they sought to re-establish themselves, but the Gunners fought it out to take a vital three points away from home.

Oliver Giroud is yet to find his goalscoring touch, but Aresene Wenger will likely keep faith with him on Sunday. The feeling persists that all he needs is time, and Wenger seems content to give it to him.

The good news is that Mikel Arteta has established himself as the origin of most Arsenal moves.

On the surface, it’s a ridiculous comparison, but he occasionally invites comparison to the way Jan Molby used to play at Liverpool: channeling the ball through the midfield via short passes and good vision while sometimes content to hang back and act as the provider.

Wenger has shown that he is willing to adjust his system according to the opponent, so it may be that a quicker player is introduced alongside Arteta. Francis Coquelin has the pace to fulfil this role, along with the ability to track back and make the necessary tackles.

Pace would seem the sensible way to proceed in the Etihad, and the combination of Arteta and Coquelin would provide a balance capable of disrupting City’s attacking flair.

Prediction

Arsenal take an early lead, but a resurgence from City in the second half ensures the points go to the men in blue.

Manchester City 2-1 Arsenal.

The race for Oscar just got a little more harried.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ decision to shift its nominations date five days earlier sent ripples throughout Hollywood on Tuesday, with new deadlines threatening to leave some high-profile end-of-year releases with less time to make an impression on Oscar voters.

Nomination ballots will now be due on Jan. 3, with the Motion Picture Academy announcing the Oscar nominations one week later on Jan. 10, the same date that the Directors Guild of America, the Cinema Audio Society and the American Cinema Editors had planned to announce the nominations for their annual awards. The Oscars ceremony takes place Feb. 24.

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AMPAS is also planning to implement a new browser-based electronic voting system that will enable its membership to select both nominees and winners online. The organization will begin registering its members for the system in October but will still allow for paper ballots during this transition year.

Additionally, the academy will provide voting systems at its headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard, its Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in Hollywood and locations in New York and London.

Ric Robertson, chief operating officer of the academy, is hopeful that the specially designed electronic system will ease voting challenges for constituents living overseas, while eliminating the need for the academy to send ballots to members vacationing during the Christmas holidays.

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“You can buy voting systems off the shelf but developing one that met our needs and had the appropriate level of security was a big focus of our efforts,” said Robertson of the system, which was developed by the academy in partnership with its auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and the electronic administration and security firm Everyone Counts over a period of 18 months.

Although the new dates give academy members more time to see films once they are nominated, the earlier deadlines compress the period of time Oscar voters have to see (and potentially nominate) movies opening in late December, meaning screeners for those titles could be mailed much earlier than in previous years.

Prior to the academy announcement, Universal Pictures on Tuesday morning said it was moving its adaptation of “Les Miserables,” the Broadway musical from “The King’s Speech” director Tom Hooper, from Dec. 14 to Dec. 25. Rather than opening on the same weekend as Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” prequel “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” it will debut opposite another Oscar hopeful, Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained.”

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Among the other high-profile films set for late December are Gus Van Sant’s “Promised Land” and Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut “Quartet,” both of which are set for release Dec. 28.

Reacting to the moves, the DGA rescheduled its feature film nominations announcement for Jan. 8. The ACE was set to discuss changing its nominations date at its board meeting Tuesday night; CAS confirmed it will change the date of its nominations announcement, but the guild hadn’t selected a new date at press time.

The Oscar deadlines also stand to affect two winter film festivals, both of which are seen as attractive promotional platforms for Oscar hopefuls.

In the past, the Palm Springs International Film Festival’s annual star-studded gala has occurred before the nominations deadline, but this year it will happen two days following that deadline on Jan. 5.

By contrast, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which falls in the middle of the post-nominations period, could gain new prominence — festivals are not subject to the same strict campaigning rules that prohibit throwing lavish parties for academy members during that time.

Harold Matzner, chairman of the Palm Springs fest, is not concerned about the revamped deadlines, however.

“We select Oscar-quality honorees based on their work and their films,” said Matzner, noting that Palm Springs announces its honorees in October and November with the hopes that they will attend the January gala. “We might have one honoree who isn’t nominated. I guess that’s possible. If it happens it won’t change anything.”

nicole.sperling@latimes.com

Times staff writer Glenn Whipp contributed to this report.

The iPhone 5 release date is almost here, Apple’s new flagship is coming to stores on Friday and now the “world” has tested the iPhone 5 in advance. There are many reasons for buying the Apple iPhone 5, however, the smartphone has its weaknesses.

Despite the change in dimensions, Apple’s recent design has mainly remained the same. The new iPhone looks, at least from the front, almost like the old one. It has become just 8.6 millimeters longer. The back, however, is not completely covered with glass.

Apple has went back to the origins, as with the first iPhone in 2007, it is now fitted with aluminum with a larger display. But is a 4-inch screen size big enough? This is of course a matter of taste and 4-inches is simply a compromise as it allows the iPhone 5 to still be easily used with one hand. According to recent tests, the thumb reaches every corner of the display. In comparison, the Galaxy S3 by Samsung has a display of 4.8 inches.

The difference between the previous iPhones and the iPhone 5, is 18 percent more space for displaying content. This means a new aspect ratio, and the ratio is no longer 3:2 but 16:9. But the disappointment comes with the 700,000+ applications in the AppStore, that have not been optimized for Apple’s new iPhone. Although, the adaptation of applications to the new display has already started. For example, Pangea Software has already completed its updates to the Stone Age racing game Cro-Mag. However, for all other applications, it may take a long time.

The resolution of the camera on the back of the smartphone in comparison to the previous model has not changed. It remains at eight megapixels, which is now the standard for smartphones in this price range. Although some say analysts say the iPhone 5 has a very good photo quality, many had hoped for a little more here.

According to Apple, they had to make changes to several components in order to build an iPhone which is only 7.6 millimeters thick. This includes a smaller camera design, a thinner display, a smaller SIM card (Nano-Sim) and a new dock connector. For the user, the new dock connector can be annoying, because users have to replace accessories. However, Apple offers an adapter for the new port.

Apple has provided a very solid new iPhone, but technically, it is not a leader. When it comes to material, design, software and functionality: Apple has not set a new standard. Unfortunately, the iPhone 5 is not a revolution, but it still provides iPhone 4S users plenty of reasons to upgrade.