Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Pep Guardiola’s City side won The Battle of Manchester last Saturday but lost out to the rain on Tuesday as their Champions League tie was postponed due to torrential rain. That fixture against Borussia Moenchengladbach was delayed by 24 hours but even that couldn’t slow City down.
Sergio Aguero who is only serving a domestic suspension was on hand to score a hat-trick as he fired his side to a comfortable 4-0 win over German opposition. That win continues Guardiola’s perfect 100 percent record which now stands up at 7 wins in all competitions.
The biggest scalp would have no doubt been the win over cross town rivals United last weekend. They raced into a 2-0 lead and even though Claudio Bravo did his best to undo all his teammates hard work, City ran out deserved 2-1 winners.
Bravo’s debut was somewhat auspicious and the Chilean keeper came in for a lot of scrutiny and criticism for that matter as people asked whether he was a worthy replacement for Joe Hart who is subsequently plying his trade in Serie A for Torino.
If you were to ask Guardiola then he would say that his signature was definitely worth the hassle as Bravo had a hand in setting up City’s due to his neat footwork and distribution. While TV and armchair pundits alike may feel that the jury is still out on this one.
He’ll make his home Premier League bow in front of a Bournemouth side who picked up their first win of the season last week at home to West Brom. Eddie Howe’s side have started slowly this season so that win would have been incredibly welcome.
After back to back defeats at the start of the season Bournemouth have now picked up four points from their last two matches. That has been against much easier opposition than they will go up against this afternoon and you do have to ask yourself what chance if any have they got of ending City’s 100% record.
If there are to have any chance then they will point to Callum Wilson who ended a long goal drought last Saturday. It was his cute flick that was enough to give The Cherries all three points against West Brom. It may well need a moment of magic like that if Bournemouth are to get anything out of this game.
4-1-4-1 seems to the formation of choice for Guardiola and it was used to great effect against United as the over ran their arch rivals throughout the pitch and at times left them chasing blue shadows across the width and breadth of Old Trafford
Once again Aguero has to make do with not being able to play due to suspension but there is quality oozing throughout this City side and I really can’t see anything other than a home win this afternoon. A home banker if every I saw one.
