Manchester City vs AFC Bournemouth
Date: 01/12/2018
K/O: 15.00
Venue: The Etihad
Referee: Stuart Attwell
Reigning Premier League champions and currently unbeaten table-toppers Manchester City will aim to maintain their unbeaten status this weekend as they welcome Bournemouth to the Etihad.
Pep Guardiola’s side look like the team to beat again this season, riding high at the summit of the league after another solid start to the current campaign. As for Bournemouth, they will not have it easy and after recent poor form, losing three straight games, Saturday’s fixture will be their toughest of the season so far.
Despite being held to a draw with Lyon in the Champions League in midweek, City secured their progress through to the next round and as the club’s off-field activities continue to come under scrutiny from investigative journalists, few can argue with the quality of their play on the field and few will expect anything but a comfortable victory on Saturday.
It has to be said that Bournemouth are having an excellent season of their own, but not many of the traveling Cherries fans will be expecting much in the way of points from this game. They lost 2-1 at Arsenal last weekend to make it a trio of successive defeats, although their 8th place standing in the Premier League table hints at just how good they have been in the early stages of this campaign.
Manchester City: Form and Stats
Manchester City sealed their place in the Champions League knockout stages during the week, but it was far from straightforward against a Lyon side who seem to have the measure of Pep Guardiola’s men. The French underdogs managed to beat the Citizens at the Etihad earlier this season and looked like they could do the same on Tuesday but a late Sergio Aguero strike was enough to give City a point.
Away from the Champions League, City extended their winning streak to five last weekend as they produced an easy 4-0 away win at West Ham. Overall the Citizens have produced a W11 D2 record in thirteen league games this season and they have won all seven of their fixtures at the Etihad. In their home fixtures, they have produced a fantastic average of 3.8 goals per home game and they have come up with a staggering fourteen goals in their last three home appearances.
The reigning champions have shipped only four home goals this season and of those, three of them have been in the first half of matches. Pep Guardiola’s men have won an impressive 43% of their home games with a clean sheet and they have also scored in both halves of every home game in this campaign.
AFC Bournemouth: Form and Stats
The visiting Cherries are currently occupying eighth position and haven’t looked out of their depth so far during the season. This in many ways is not the game that Bournemouth need right now as they are trying to snap themselves out of a three-match losing slump.
Following a blistering start to the campaign, some pundits believed that the Dorset club may have been on the verge of yet another milestone as they found themselves flying high in the top six until recently. A run of three consecutive defeats however has seen them slip to eighth place and they’ll be out to bounce back to form as quickly as possible.
Their strength this season has been their attacking prowess. Having scored 22 goals in their 13 games so far, more than any side outside the top 5. Having said this, getting a goal against the joint best defence in the Premier League might seem a tall order. Yet Guardiola’s men actually seem worse defensively at the Etihad than they do when on the road. Four of the five goals they have conceded in the league this season have come on home soil.
Key Men
Josh King
The Norway international scored a majestic left-footed curler against the Gunners on his return to the first team last weekend, after having been sidelined for a month. This was his fifth goal in 10 matches this season but King and Bournemouth will have to be at their counter-attacking best at the Etihad to go home with a result.
King will be hoping his partnership with Callum Wilson causes trouble to the meanest defence in the league on their own turf. The pair, who have now scored 11 goals between them, had started in all of the Cherries’ first 10 league games this season before King’s injury.
Sergio Aguero
The 30-year old Argentinian is in sizzling form at home, seven of Aguero’s eight Premier League goals this season have come at home. The Argentine has been involved in 23 goals in his last 14 Premier League games at the Etihad (18 goals, five assists).
Man City’s all-time record goal-scorer has been in typically clinical form throughout this season on all fronts once again. With Jesus reportedly still nursing an injury, the onus will lie on the reliable Argentine attacker again, to lead the line, even after having played the full 90 against Lyon.
Man City vs Bournemouth | Opta Stats
If Man City avoid defeat, it will be their third unbeaten run in the Premier League of 20+ games – something only Manchester United (7 times) and Arsenal (4 times) have done more often in the competition.
The only two games Man City have failed to win in the Premier League this season have been in the two games in which they’ve failed to score in the first half (1-1 vs Wolves, 0-0 vs Liverpool).
Bournemouth are yet to lose an away Premier League match against the reigning champion – they beat Chelsea in both the 2015-16 and 2017-18 seasons and drew with Leicester City in 2016-17.
Man City’s Raheem Sterling has had a hand in nine goals in five Premier League appearances against Bournemouth (7 goals, 2 assists), averaging a goal or assist every 48 minutes.
Head to Head
Bournemouth’s recent record against Man City is disappointing, as the Cherries have lost all six of the Premier League meetings between the two sides. The Cherries have never beaten Manchester City in a competitive fixture and have only twice escaped with a draw.
Team News
Kevin De Bruyne is again ruled out with ligament damage sustained in the Carabao Cup win over Fulham. Benjamin Mendy is out for up to 12 weeks with Ilkay Gundogan and Gabriel Jesus set to undergo fitness tests after missing the midweek game with Lyon.
Bernado Silva suffered an unspecified injury on international duty and was sent home from the squad last time out but is expected to return straight back in the playing XI. Goalkeeper Claudio Bravo is a long-term absentee, having sustained an Achilles tendon injury. The Chilean keeper underwent scans, which confirmed a rupture in the tendon of his left foot.
Adam Smith has been ruled out for up to three months, with his cartilage problem while Jefferson Lerma will serve a one-match ban after picking up another booking last weekend.
Predicted Starting XI’s
Manchester City (4-3-3): Ederson; Delph, Laporte, Stones, Walker; Fernandinho, Bernado Silva, Gundogan; Sane, Aguero, Sterling
AFC Bournemouth (4-3-3): Begovic; Daniels, Ake, Steve Cook, Francis; Fraser, Lewis Cook, Gosling; Brooks, King, Wilson
Score Prediction: Manchester City 3 Bournemouth 1
The Citizens are all guns blazing in the Premier League and the only prediction that makes sense is a home win. Anything but a win will be a set back for the demanding Pep Guardiola. Home games have seen goals for Pep Guardiola’s side of late and they racked up six in the victories over Southampton and Shakhtar Donetsk, five against Burnley and even eased to a 3-1 win in the Manchester derby against Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United side. With Bournemouth’s confidence likely to be dented by that trio of defeats, we’re backing them to succumb to the irresistible Blues attack here.
