But don’t bother asking - even Pep doesn’t know.
I think one Manchester City fan leaving the stadium last Tuesday night summed it up perfectly when he simply said, “City in a nutshell”.
The numbers…
· 4 games since we returned from the last international break
· 10 days
· 2 wins
· 2 defeats
· 9 goals scored
· 10 conceded
Oh yeah…and the fastest ever 100 Premier League goals goes to Erling Haaland. 🦸
Crazy statistics.
And that coin flip that I spoke about pre-match? It very nearly landed on its edge before just about tipping over in our favour.
There’s little wonder why even Guardiola can’t put his finger on what’s going on at the moment other than, in his words, “…it’s the Premier League”. 🤷♂️
For my part regarding the Fulham game, I thought we looked a little easier to get through once Nico Gonzalez went off on 64 minutes with the scoreline at 2-5. Other City fans leaving the stadium did question our manager’s substitutions.
But well done Fulham – what a performance throughout the game from our hosts. A game that, goals aside, was vibrant throughout. I suppose, then, well done to us too for scoring FIVE goals away from home against a side who were more than up for the fight.
A massive well done to the travelling City fans too. 👏👏👏👏👏…
There’s a blog announcement at the end of this piece.
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| Etihad Stadium |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 9/11 .
A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 (occasional 3-6-1):
____________________Haaland____________________
__Doku_________________________________Cherki__
_________Silva(C)_________________Foden__________
____________________Gonzalez___________________
O’Reilly___________________________________Nunes
__________Gvardiol______________Dias(VC)__________
__________________Donnarumma_________________
Subs: Trafford, Ait-Nouri, Lewis, Ake, Khusanov, Stones, Reijnders, Savinho and Marmoush.
Gigi continues in goal and will be hoping, I’m sure, to be picking the ball out of his net far less often this afternoon.
A back 4, occasional 3, of Nico-O-, Josko, Ruben and Matheus would be my guess.
Nico-G- continues in the defensive midfield role and fingers remain crossed that the Spanish Under-21 international can remain free from injury.
Jeremy, Bernardo, Phil and Rayan-C- is my attacking-4 prediction.
Erling up top.
An apparently unhappy and want-away, James, is reserve stopper for the afternoon; Rayan-A-, Rico, Nathan, Abdukodir and John make up FIVE defenders on the side. Tijjani, Savinho and Omar complete ‘the 9’ by giving us various attacking options in reserve.
Notable absences:
- Marcus Bettinelli – Not selected.
- Stefan Ortega – Not selected.
- Kalvin Phillips – Not selected.
- Mateo Kovacic – Recovering from secondary surgery to clean up some calcification in his ankle. Expected return is around February 2026.
- Rodri – Continues to recover from a hamstring injury he received on 5th October. We were informed on 5th December that the Spanish international was back in training and that it would be a matter of weeks before being considered for a return. The staff and the player himself are simply making sure that the area is fully recovered so as to try an’ avoid a reoccurrence / future set back.
- Oscar Bobb – Not selected.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Yeah, that’d do.
I’d love for O’Reilly to get an opportunity to showcase his central midfield attacking skills at some stage but he’s doing so well at left-wing back, that would only serve to expose us further.
I think I’d have Bobb on the bench instead of Savinho at the moment; not that the Norwegian international has sparked into life himself yet this season.
Result?
I feel more confident talking about our opponents than I do about my own team at the moment. 🤪 One thing is for certain, The Black Cats will have no fear whatsoever coming to our place this afternoon. For me, that says both a lot about how well they have done since their return to the top flight…and is a little sad and concerning to admit from our point of view also.
So, regarding our opponents, 14 league games played and only 3 defeats. 14 games played and only 14 goals conceded – the joint-3rd best defensive record in the league and, of course now, better than ours.
6th in the table and just 5 points behind us; their last 6 in the prem reads, W D D L W D.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
🚨TEMPTING FATE ALAERT!🚨
Shhhh…🤫 They don’t score too many league goals.
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Outside of the bottom 5 clubs, 18 goals from those 14 games played is the joint-2nd lowest for finding the back of the opponents net. Tight, organised, hardworking and counter attacking appears to be their weapons of choice.
Yep…it's another one where both our players and fans will have to be very, very patient and where our midfield and defence needs to be alert to the dangers of those counters.
God I hope our players are payin’ attention and have been training accordingly.
Their top goalscorer is French born, Wilson Isidor, with 4 and their assist king is ex-Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen midfielder, Granit Xhaka; again with 4 and who has a goal to his name also. From deep inside the Sunderland midfield, this 33-year-old likes to pop forward and contribute at the ‘business end’ of the pitch, so he needs monitoring for sure.
As for us? What can I say? Scoring loads but conceding even more.
Forgetting this game for a brief moment; going forward we’re desperate for some muscle in midfield. We’re also desperate for a real midfield leader; a REAL Captain on the pitch.
I would say also, aside from needing a specialist right-wing back, that we could do with a top-notch, central defender and one with some pace too.
There…I’ve said it.
As for this game? I’m just gonna do exactly what I did before our match last Tuesday and call this one just how I see it - a draw. Hopefully, as with the last time I predicted a share of the points, I’ll be proven wrong and we’ll come away with all 3. 🤞
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:
Prediction: N/A
Result: N/A
Expected weather conditions during the game: Sunshine and showers before the game gives way to prolonged periods of light rain. Some of it could turn heavy. Along with the wet comes a light westerly breeze with occasional gusts of wind and the forecasted temperature is a fairly mild-sounding 10C, although I can’t imagine it feeling so in the damp conditions. 🌦️🧥🥧🍺⚽
Announcement
There’ll be no pre-match blog posting ahead of our Wednesday night game. I’m not even too sure how I managed to get the last one done and posted before the Fulham clash.
There will also be one, possibly two games just prior to Christmas day that I might also not be able to cover but I’ll look at that situation nearer the time.
In addition, there’s also a chance that from some point in January 2026, I won’t be able to preview any midweek matches regardless of the competition and may, instead, have to simply concentrate on weekend fixtures. Once again, I’ll see nearer the time when I know about work scheduling.
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| Solidarity |
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