It’s GW2 and the Cityzens are back on home turf. After a brilliant performance against West Ham last week, Manchester City will host Bournemouth at the Etihad on Saturday by 15:00 UK time.
The match seems to be quite a walkover fir the reigning champions. Here are a few stats and facts ahead of this fixture:
• Manchester City have won all 10 of their Premier League matches against Bournemouth, the best 100%-winning ratio by a team against another in Premier League history.
• Bournemouth have only led for eight minutes in their 16 league meetings against Manchester City between 1987 and 2020, with Charlie Daniels giving them the lead in August 2017 before Gabriel Jesus equalised.
• Bournemouth are winless in all 16 league meetings with Manchester City (D2 L14), the joint-most one side has faced another in the history of the Football League without winning, level with Halifax Town against Cardiff City, and Wrexham against Crystal Palace.
• Manchester City have only lost their first home league game in one of the last 22 seasons (W15 D6), a 5-2 loss against Leicester in 2020-21. The Citizens’ last four such games have produced 23 goals (F15 A8), at an average of 5.8 per game.
• Bournemouth have won two of their five Premier League away games against reigning champions (D1 L2), although both of their defeats in such games have been against Manchester City.
Guardiola has confirmed that Kalvin Phillips will be sidelined for the match due to discomfort and Aymeric Laporte is still out of the equation. Every other player is ready for the match.
The possible starting XI for both teams are as follows:
MANCHESTER CITY 4-3-3
Goalkeeper: Ederson
Defenders: Cancelo, Dias, Ake, Walker
Midfielders: Rodri, Bernardo, De Bruyne
Forwards: Grealish, Haaland, Mahrez
BOURNEMOUTH 3-4-3
Goalkeeper: Travers
Defenders: Lerma, Mepham, Kelly
Midfielders: Smith, Pearson, Billing, Zemura
Forwards: Tavernier, Solanke; Moore
FULL TIME PREDICTION
Man City 3-0 Bournemouth
Bournemouth will go into this match with a lot of confidence after seeing off Aston Villa with a 2-0 win in their season last weekend. However, it takes more than just confidence to stand against Pep Guardiola’s side.
Manchester City looked really sharp against West Ham last weekend as Erling Haaland stole the show with his debut brace. He seems to be building a prolific partnership with De Bruyne and the duo will be intent on causing Bournemouth problems.