Written by billythekid
After a 5-1 defeat and our ninth defeat in a row away from home at the Emirates Stadium against Arsenal who made it eight wins on the bounce at home, the Cherries meet the team lying in second place Manchester City at Dean Court on Saturday. This will be the second Saturday running the Cherries are at home.
This will be a challenging game for the Cherries, but with our recent home record, there is a chance to get something. Both Chelsea, Leicester City and Newcastle beat City on their home grounds. They have a number of players that can cause us problems, two players have 9 assists so far, Sterling and Sane (the same as Ryan Fraser). Then you have Aguero and Sterling (always a thorn in our side), with 30 goals between them. Manchester City will be chasing the points as they keep up their title challenge on leaders Liverpool.
After our game up there in December, City were top of the table. Since then they won away 1-2 at Watford. Then they had the first of their away defeats losing 2-0 at Stamford Bridge to Chelsea. Back home at the Etihad Stadium City had two games in a row, first they beat Everton 3-1 and then in a shock result they lost to Crystal Palace 2-3, this is the only home defeat for City so far. Manchester City then travelled to Leicester City and were beaten by the home side 2-1, this was two defeats on the bounce. Last game of the month and year was away against Southampton, City got back to winning ways, with the game finishing 1-3.
Their first game in January was home to league leaders Liverpool, City won 2-1. This was followed with two more wins, first at home they beat Wolves 3-0 and then away at Huddersfield they recorded another 0-3 score. The last game of January City travelled to the North East to play Newcastle United, in another surprising result City lost 2-1.
February was a good month with four straight wins for Manchester City, first Arsenal at home 3-1, then visiting Goodison Park to play Everton, which City won 1-2 and finally back home to play another London club Chelsea, City thrashed them 6-0. The third London club to visit City were West Ham and City won 1-0, to pick up another 3 points and maximum 12 points for the month.
In our home games in the league against Manchester City, the Cherries have never won. They have D 1, L5. In the Premier League, we lost 0-4 in 2015-16, 0-2 in 2016-17 and 1-2 in 2017-18. Other league games at home the Cherries D 1, L2. In all league games home and away (never met in the Cup), W 0, D 2, L 11.
Six Game Form Guide in the Premier League – Starting with the latest game first:
AFCB LDLLWW – Manchester City WWWWLW
Home Form Table
AFCB – 7th P14 W7 D4 L3 GF26GA18 Pts25
Away Form Table
Manchester C – 3rd P13 W8 D2 L3 GF25 GA9 Pts26
AFCB Team News
Long term ACL knee injury victims Simon Francis and Lewis Cook will still be missing. Callum Wilson knee injury, Junior Stanislas hip flexor strain, Steve Cook groin injury, have missed recent games. Latest on our injury front is Dominic Solanke with a thigh strain who missed the Arsenal game. Finally, we have Jefferson Lerma serving his last match suspension for receiving his tenth yellow card against Wolves. The good news is David Brooks was amongst our unused subs against Arsenal.
AFCB Player To Watch
Not sure if Eddie will start David Brooks against Manchester City, if he does, David makes such a difference to our team and we have missed him. Josh King and Ryan Fraser usually perform well for us at home, can Ryan get his 10th?
Manchester City Team News
Players likely to be missing or near return are Fernandinho and Aymeric Laporte both out with muscle injuries picked up in the League Cup Final. Gabriel Jesus with a hamstring injury, John Stones groin injury. Claudio Bravo has an Achilles injury.
Manchester City Player To Watch
Sergio Agüero, been in good form recently and scored two hat-tricks in February against London clubs at the Etihad Stadium, first in the Arsenal game and more recently against Chelsea, Aguero is the leading scorer with 18 goals, plus 6 assists. Another player known to score against us is Raheem Sterling, he has 12 goals and 9 assists to his name.
Kevin Friend is our referee on Saturday.
Had him back in August in our home game against Cardiff City.
Your say…
northstandmark wrote…
Back to basics, pack the centre of the pitch
———Boruc
–Mepham Ake Simpson
Clyne Surman Gosling Smith
———-Fraser
——King Mousset*
*Or Solanke if fit
**At what point do we consider Boruc as making too many mistakes just as we did with Begovic? Probably has a couple more to go yet? Or has that Begovic option well and truly sailed? – Join the conversation, click here.
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