Written by BillyTheKid
Can AFCB Make It Nine Unbeaten?
After our televised Sky home win against Nottingham Forest, the Cherries are again being covered live by Sky in our next game away on Sunday at 4.30 pm against Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City team. City are 5th in the table with 16 points, and the Cherries are 2nd with 18 points after 9 games.
Manchester City v AFC Bournemouth
Man City Win
Man City Win
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Draw
Draw
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AFCB Win
AFCB Win
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Pep Guardiola and his City team, after winning the Premier League title in the seasons 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24, finished in 3rd place last season, with Liverpool winning the Premier League since they last won it in the 2019-20 season. Manchester City will be aiming to get the title back this season.
At home Manchester City team didn’t have a good start to their second game of the season, losing 0-2 against Spurs. In their home local derby against United, they won 3-0. In the other two home league games, they beat Burnley 5-1 and Everton 2-0.
City started the new season with an away 0-4 win at Wolves. In their other away games, they went down 2-1 at Brighton. Drew 1-1 with Arsenal and won 0-1 at Brentford. In their most recent game, against Aston Villa, they lost 1-0.
Since the Cherries have been in the Premier League, in the first 14 games against City, they hadn’t picked up a point in 14 games. Last season, they won their first-ever game against City, which was at home at Dean Court, and it finished 2-1. The previous 6 league games before AFCB joined the top league, AFCB had drawn 2 and lost 4.
The last time our two sides met at the Etihad Stadium was in May, City winning 3-1. It was a game that saw a last and a first. It was Kevin de Bruyne’s last home game for Manchester City, his first Premier League goal for AFCB from Daniel Jebbison. The scorers for Manchester City were Omar Marmoush, Bernardo Silva and Nico Gonzalez. As mentioned, Daniel Jebbison scored the Cherries’ goal in injury time.
In all away league games against City, AFCB have W 0, D 1, L 10.
All competitions, AFCB have W 1, D 2, L 21.
Manchester City Team News
Rodri has been out injured. They signed seven players during the Summer window.
Manchester City Player To Watch
Erling Haaland this season has scored 24 goals in 15 appearances in the Premier League, Europe or International games. In the Premier League, he has scored 11 goals in 9 games. In 6 Premier League games against AFCB, he has scored 1 goal. Jeremy Doku leads City’s assists this season with 3. Omar Marmoush, in his two games against AFCB last season, scored in both. One was the only goal in the FA Cup, and the other in the league game in Manchester.
AFCB Team News
Hopefully, all the players are available again for selection, with no new injury news.
AFCB Player To Watch
If Marcus Senesi or Djordje Petrovich/Bfode Diakite and our defence can stop Haaland scoring, we could come away from Manchester with our first point/s in visits to play City in this league. Four of their other players have scored 1 goal. Just need Junior Kroupi to add to his 4 goals in 3 games or Antoine Semenyo to get back on the score sheet again. Adams and Scott have been strong in midfield.
The Referee
Anthony Taylor is the man in the middle for this game. He took our opening away game at Liverpool.
Matt Stevenson added
I’ve looked at the last 4 league games for Man C. They had two home games (Burnley and Everton) and two away games (Brentford and A Villa). Man C have gained 9 points, winning all but the game against Villa. The xG value for goals scored is 6.45, compared with 8 actual goals; they have conceded 2 goals, with xGc estimating 2.73 goals.
Goals Xg.jpg
Man City have had 2 different goal scorers, Haaland with 5, Nunes and 2 own goals by Esteve of Burnley. Doku has 2 assists, with five players having one assist each.
The average positions of the starting line-ups are below. In these games, Man C dominate possession and pins teams back both home and away. The Villa game probably saw wingers swapping sides.
Av Pos.jpg
The following plot compares the summary stats of Man C and AFCB over the last 4 games.
Unsurprisingly, Man C have had many more attempts, big chances and a higher xG, although AFCB have scored more goals (we have been scoring low probability chances). Man C have better defensive stats, with noticeably fewer goal attempts, and big chances conceded, with xGc and the number of goals conceded also clearly favouring Man City. We have made fewer errors leading to chances than Man C.
Comparison.png
Man C have had 66% possession, which is likely to continue at the Etihad. Their pass completion rate is very high (90%). AFCB have been creating a lower proportion of chances from set pieces than Man C, and conceding a higher proportion of chances from set plays (over 40%).
Percentages.png
Your say…
NorthStandMark said…
It seems bonkers to say it, and it might well be a bridge too far, but we can actually go to The Etihad and have a proper go at them. Toe to toe. That’s the times we live in currently. – To join the conversation, please click here.