Key events
Here’s an interesting pair of stats, courtesy of Opta. Going into this weekend, City are the only side in the Premier League this season to spend more than half of their game time in a winning position (51.3%), while Bournemouth are the side that has spent the least amount of minutes (11%) losing.
Rayan Cherki’s only league start for City since his £30.5m summer move from Lyon was the 2-0 home defeat to Tottenham in August. It’s been a fairly underwhelming start for Cherki, who has flickered with some bright moments. Guardiola highly rates the Frenchman, who scored in the Carabao Cup against Swansea this week, and had this to say about the playmaker only last month.
The two managers have spoken to the Sky Sports cameras.
Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola:
We have never got a point here so we knows it’s going to be tough. Injury wise, we come with every one available so we arrive in a good moment. I hope we have a chance. Definitely we need our best performance. I trust our players. Let’s see if it’s enough.
Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola:
Yesterday was only the first training session, so we decide to leave him on the bench. Rodri is also not ready to start, he needs to play.
Accounting that for West Ham-Newcastle result, here is the updated Premier League table. Just three points separate Bournemouth in second and Aston Villa in 11th.
Bournemouth have done just fine without him, but Evanilson is back in the squad today for the first time in a month. In his stead, striker Eli Kroupi has caught fire and is looking to become just the fourth teenager to score in four consecutive games in the Premier League.
A first win for Nuno at West Ham, who have beaten Newcastle 3-1 (but remain in the relegation zone).
Meanwhile, north of the border, Celtic have taken an extra-time lead against old rivals Rangers in the Scottish League Cup.
In an unexpected turn of events, West Ham are beating Newcastle. You can follow the final 15 minutes of that one right here, with John Brewin.
Those are two insanely attacking sides! By my reckoning, both sides have just one player each in their midfields – City have Nico González and Bournemouth have Tyler Adams – that are defensively minded.
Plus, City have two converted midfielders playing at full-back, although you could argue that both O’Reilly and Matheus Nunes are just full-backs at this point.
Team news!
Manchester City: Donnarumma, Matheus Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly, Silva, Gonzalez, Cherki, Foden, Doku, Haaland.
Subs: Trafford, Reijnders, Stones, Ake, Marmoush, Rodri, Ait Nouri, Savio, Lewis.
Bournemouth: Petrovic, Jimenez, Diakite, Senesi, Truffert, Scott, Adams, Tavernier, Brooks, Semenyo, Junior Kroupi.
Subs: Dennis, Cook, Evanilson, Christie, Doak, Smith, Kluivert, Adli, Milosavljevic.
Preamble
Bournemouth don’t have a great record at Manchester City – since their first promotion to the Premier League in 2015, the Cherries have lost all eight of their league visits to the Etihad Stadium, scoring five goals and conceding … 31 – but this isn’t an ordinary Bournemouth team.
The south-coasters currently sit second in the Premier League. That is despite the fact that they lost some of their biggest stars (including three-quarters of their defence) over the summer, a transfer window in which the club made a profit of £63.3m. Relatively unheralded teenagers Eli Kroupi (plucked from Ligue 2) and Veljko Milosavljevic (who made only 27 first-team appearances for Red Star Belgrade before signing for Bournemouth) have come in as thrifty replacements and already look like Premier League superstars.
Antoine Semenyo has arguably been the best player in the league this season. Andoni Iraola is a likeable and unflappable manager, playing an entertaining brand of football that is flexible enough to steer clear of tactical evangelism. Unbeaten since August, Bournemouth might have the smallest stadium in the league but have turned the Vitality (11,300 capacity) into a mini fortress. Away from home, the Cherries have been a bit more inconsistent – a win over Tottenham has been supplemented by high-scoring draws against Leeds and Palace – and this is the improvement that Bournemouth must make if they are to truly be considered as genuine top-four or (DON’T SAY IT, DON’T SAY IT, DON’T SAY IT) even title contenders.
Manchester City, of course, know what it takes to go the distance, even if this current crop are struggling to live up the treble-winners of yesteryear. Arsenal look imperious at the moment but only a fool would count out Pep Guardiola and co with just a quarter of the season completed. City will go second on 19 points with a win today, six points behind the Gunners. That is not an insurmountable gap, particularly as Arsenal’s next three league games are Sunderland (a), Tottenham (h) and Chelsea (a).
Plenty to play for, then, in an intriguing match.
Kick-off: 4.30pm GMT.
