Lifting the cup!

Should be a top day tomorrow – a party atmosphere that even the warm, sunny weather has been invited to share!

 

With a packed agenda this Bank Holiday weekend, I’ll crack on without any more waffle…

v Huddersfield Town

Etihad Stadium

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from starting line-up in the last game: 9/11).

Fluid 4-5-1 / 4-3-3:

____________________Jesus____________________

Sane__________________________________Sterling

___________D. Silva________De Bruyne__________

_________________Fernandinho_________________

Delph__________________________________Walker

____________Laporte________Otamendi__________

___________________Ederson__________________

Subs: Bravo, Mendy, Danilo, Kompany, Toure, B. Silva, Gundogan.

Ederson with the gloves.

There are some doubts about Vinny & Kyle but I’ve gone for the latter starting, alongside Fabian, Aymeric & Nicholas in the back 4.

Fernandinho ahead of those with Leroy, David, Kevin & Raheem more advanced.

Gabriel up front / floating.

Claudio the back-up stopper; Benjamin, Danilo and 'Vinny form the bench', I think, to make a trophy-lifting appearance in the second half. Yaya to get a trophy-lifting farewell also, I’d say, with Bernardo & Ilkay making up the midfield numbers from the bench.

Notable absences:

-       John Stone: Back in training but perhaps not QUITE right for this / not selected.

-       Oleksandr Zinchenko: Not selected

-       Sergio Aguero: Injured for at least another 2 weeks / season likely over

Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?

Yep.

Result? Our visitors are scrapping for their very survival and they gave us one HELL of a hard game in the reverse fixture way back in November 2017; when we grabbed an 84^th minute Sterling winner after dominating play but facing a very hard working & resilient Yorkshire side (who were a little ‘rough & tumble’ too, I seem to recall).

I’m sure they’ll be up for this one as well as they dangle just 3 points above ‘the drop’ with just 3 games to go...and I’m sure they’ll see an away point at Manchester City as a 'point gained', so expect another well-constructed brick wall or 3.

But that’s all they can do really as their striking record is just AWFUL! 27 goals from 35 league games played says a lot about why they are where they are.

It might take some time to breach their defences and we’ll have to match their work rate but that shouldn’t be an issue for us if we’re not distracted by the impending party.

This is a home win for me and, if so, that’ll see us move a whopping 19-points clear at the top, thanks also to a nice-little Brighton win last night!

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result…

Prediction: N/A

Result: N/A

Expected weather conditions during the game: Around 73F and mostly sunny for the game & party!