…back-to-back, very tough fixtures and it doesn’t get much tougher than the high-flying Cherries - a 2nd-place side with only one league defeat in nine.
This is also the first of FIVE from six home fixtures in November 😮 whereas, in sharp contrast, we travel more than Father Christmas throughout December . 🛷
vAFC Bournemouth
Etihad Stadium
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 7/11.
*A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 (occasional 3-6-1):*
____________________Haaland____________________
__Marmoush____________________________Cherki__
_________Silva (C) _________________Foden__________
___________________Gonzalez____________________
O’Reilly___________________________________Nunes
__________Gvardiol______________Dias (VC) __________
__________________Donnarumma_________________
**Subs:**Trafford, Ait-Nouri, Lewis, Stones, Rodri, Reijnders, Bobb, Doku and Savinho.
Gigi retakes the gloves for this league fixture.
I’m going for a back-4, occasional 3, of Nico-O-, Josko, Ruben and Matheus.
Nico-G- starts once more as our defensive midfielder.
Ahead of him I’m going a little bold by suggesting that both Omar and Rayan-C- can manage two games in four days following months out with injuries. Both players not only completed the 90+ minutes in midweek but they finished the match strong; with goals each and an assist for Rayan as well. If I’m correct, I’m going for both of those to start wide, although I’d expect them to make runs inside too.I could be wrong – Doku may start left and Marmoush might have to take the role of reserve striker for this fixture. I think we’ll see Bernardo and Phil in the middle.
Erling returns up top following his close encounter with a goalpost a week ago.
James is back on the bench as keeper cover; Rayan-A-, Rico and John provide defensive options. Rodri and Tijjani make up two midfielders on the side, while there’s a wealth of wide alternatives in that prediction from me in the form of Oscar, Jeremy and Savinho.
Notableabsences:
-Marcus Bettinelli – Not selected.
-Stefan Ortega– Not selected.
-Abdukodir Khusanov – Not selected.
-Nathan Ake – Not selected…and now being linked with a January move away from the club.
-Kalvin Phillips– Not selected.
-Mateo Kovacic– Didn’t make an appearance in midweek’s squad with rumours that the Croatian international is still not quite ready following a long injury layoff. When asked on Friday 31st October about his availability our manager said, “We’ll see”.🤷♂️
Do I agree withPep’s (predicted) line-up?
Yep.
Result?
🚨🔔 Hard to defeat, although they have conceded the most goals of the top-5 teams; Bournemouth are a side who have the ability to punish any lapse in concentration and that should signal some alarm bells for a City side who haven’t quite ironed out all of last season’s vulnerabilities; despite a keeper upgrade and a slightly more settled back-4. They have weapons.
Our visitors are far from being a one man team but it would be remiss of me to not mention forward,Antoine Semenyo. The Chelsea born, Ghanaian international has 6 league goals and 3 assists in 9 games, meaning that he has been involved in over half of Bournemouth’s 16 league goals this season so far. That’s excellent form.
I think it might be going a step too far to use the phrase, “We bounced back” following our defeat toAston Villa last weekend. The general consensus from travelling Blues last Wednesday in South Wales was that it was a poor performance from our team. Too slow to get going and, generally, too soft; seemingly expecting the lower-division side to simply roll over, which they didn’t and quite rightly so.
Ait-Nouri and Khusanov looked understandably rusty on their returns and with very intermittent game time himself, so did Nathan Ake once again. James Trafford played well, I thought.
As is often the case, we wore the so-called lesser side down in the end but I will add that I was pleased with both Rico Lewis and Rayan Cherki’s performances; particularly the latter who looks a class act, just as I thought he would be.👏👍
This next one is gonna be tough, as I’ve already intimated.
On the one hand, if they manage to nullify Erling Haaland then going off recent games, who’s going to step up and provide the goal threat?🍫On the other hand, if we bring out our soft centre midfield rather than a hard caramel one; that defence, plus Donnarumma, are going to be in for a busy afternoon / evening.
I was so tempted to go with a draw and I’m HOPING that my heart isn’t just ruling my head because I try to be honest at the stage of predicting a outcome. I’m having this down as a City win.
I really hope so too because when I look at the table, there’s a big bunch of 10 teams separated by just 3 points from 2nd all the way down to 11th.😲 It feels like an old school “PILE ON!” and we need to try ‘n’ get ourselves near the top of the mad scramble ASAP.
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:
Prediction: Win
Result: Won
(There was no pre-match blog posting for that game due to both time constraints and an up and coming holiday at that time.Here’s the announcement I put out, which includes post-F.A. Cup Final comments🙁from last May)
Expected weather conditions during the game :Practically identical to last Wednesday night in Wales. 10C, with a “feels like” of 8C; gentle breeze and dry.🍵🥧🧥🍺⚽
Solidarity