Manchester City vs Newcastle
Saturday 3rd October
Neither Manchester City or Newcastle enter this fixture in the greatest form, with Manchester City losing their last fixture against Tottenham and Newcastle yet to win this season. Both teams will be desperate to right the wrongs come this weekend.
If Newcastle are to prevail against Manuel Pellegrini’s men, they may well look to Jack Colback to provide drive and energy from the centre of midfield. The former Sunderland man has already covered a highly impressive 71.79km this season and it may be the role of Fernandinho to limit his effectiveness, who has covered 60.9km himself.
Newcastle may look to Chancel Mbemba if they are to curb the undoubted threat of Sergio Aguero. Mbemba has won more tackles than any other Newcastle player (23) and has also made more clearances (41), but he’ll face a real threat in Sergio Aguero who has shown his eye for goal by taking a shot at an average of a shot every 26 minutes. Aguero is 11/18 with 888sport.com to score at any time this weekend.
In Tim Krul and Joe Hart, two of the best goalkeepers in the league will be on show on Saturday, with the pair established internationals for their respective countries. The pair have had contrasting seasons, though, with Tim Krul being kept a lot more busy as the season has gone on. The Dutchman has made 27 saves so far this season, which is the third most in the league, in comparison to Joe Hart, who has made nine.
The dual between Raheem Sterling and Daryl Janmaat is likely to be a crucial one on Saturday, as Sterling has the pace and trickery to cause problems for even the most accomplished defenders. The EA SPORTS Player Performance Index shows that Sterling has completed eight dribbles this weekend, but he’s likely to meet his match in Daryl Janmaat who has won an impressive 58% of his challenges so far this season.
Manchester City vs Newcastle Starting Lineups:
Manchester City: Hart; Sagna, Mangala, Otamendi, Kolarov; Fernando, Fernandinho, De Bruyne, Silva, Sterling; Aguero
Newcastle United: Krul; Janmaat, Mbemba, Coloccini, Mbabu; Sissoko, Anita, Colback, Wijnaldum; Perez, Mitrovic
Manchester City vs Newcastle Stats:
- Manchester City are unbeaten in 17 league meetings with Newcastle (W15, D2), their longest-ever run without defeat against a single opponent in the Premier League.
- Only against Barnsley have City had a longer unbeaten run, going 19 matches without defeat between 1898 and 1987.
- They have scored two or more goals in each of their last 14 league games against the Magpies, while Newcastle have not even scored a goal against City in their last five top-flight encounters.
- Manchester City have lost successive league games, having previously won a club record 11 matches in a row.
- Manuel Pellegrini’s side have conceded six goals in those last two matches, compared to just four in the previous 11 fixtures.
- Newcastle are winless after seven league games this season. Only once in their history, in 1898-99, have they failed to win any of their opening eight league matches. In that campaign, they actually went 10 games without a victory but still avoided relegation.
- The Magpies have won just one of their 18 league games since the beginning of March.
Manchester City vs Newcastle Prediction:
A 2-0 win for the home side.