There might have been circumstances and possible excuses surrounding both of our league fixtures against Brentford last season but that headline is simply a fact – they beat us twice in the league last season with an aggregate score of 3-1 over both games.
There’s a blog announcement at the end of this piece…
v Brentford
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| Gtech Community Stadium |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 7/11).
I’m gonna put out almost the same predicted 11 as I did for the last game, which saw me get 4 wrong; such are the options available for us at the moment. Here goes…
A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-2-3-1 / 4-5-1:
____________________Alvarez____________________
Bobb_____________________________________Foden
_____________________________De Bruyne_________
____________Silva______________________________
_____________________Rodri_____________________
Gvardiol__________________________________Walker
_____________Ake_____________Stones____________
____________________Ederson_____________________
Subs: Ortega, Lewis, Akanji, Dias, Kovacic, Nunes, Doku, Grealish & Haaland.
Ederson in net.
A back-4 of Josko - who appears to be coming under increasing scrutiny from a section of City fans with regards to his ‘return value’, following big press hype and high expectations before we signed the 22-year-old Croat last summer - Nathan, John & Kyle; with John being my only predicted change from my midweek guesswork.
Rodders just ahead of those.
Providing the creativity and attacking threat from midfield, I think we might see Oscar, Bernardo, Kevin & Phil.
Julian to start alone once again ‘up top’ but perhaps seeing his striking partner, Erling, sooner than he did last Wednesday.
Again, there are so many other possibilities here. For example, Mateo & Matheus have both done enough to deserve starts and as long as he’s been doing well in training; Jack is probably due a run out to keep him ‘ticking over’ at least.
Jeremy is always in with a shout of a starting call-up and, indeed, ‘got the nod’ in our last game; while we might see two strikers start and, if so, Phil could be the one to step aside in that scenario in order rest / rotate / refresh.
It’s all ‘good stuff’…but makes it much more difficult to predict.
As for those in reserve, Stefan continues to provide keeper insurance; Rico to return to the bench after last Wednesday’s start and is joined by Manuel & Ruben as defenders on the side. Mateo & Matheus are two central midfielders on the sideline, while Jeremy & Jack are wingers in ‘the 9’ waiting for their opportunity.
Erling is the reserve striker at the moment…but not for much longer.
Notable absences:
- Sergio Gomez – Not selected.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Result? There may well have been circumstances surrounding both of our league fixtures last season but we have to be wary of these once again on Monday night…not least because of the ‘Toney factor’.
The recently returned [from a lengthy ban] striker has pretty much everything you’d want in a forward and he has scored one in each of his two matches since that reintroduction; helping his side to a much-needed home victory on his return debut. I think we’ll need Nathan to continue his very fine form; hope that John, or whoever, is ‘on it’ also next to the Dutch international and that our wing-backs keep in mind their defensive duties possibly more-so than their offensive ones.
But, of course, they’ve got the get the ball off us first and then keep it for long enough to threaten some damage - we’re not undefeated in 11 games in all competitions for nothing. On the other hand, we are still prone to defensive hiccups at the moment and further evidence of that came as late as the 93rd minute of last Wednesday’s 3-1 home win. 🙄
11 games undefeated we might be…but we’ve conceded in 6 of those same-11 fixtures and a total of 9 goals have hit the back of our net in that time.
I believe our hosts are going to make it tough for us and why wouldn’t they? I think they might score too; with the aforementioned Ivan possibly being that player to hurt us. However, I am confident that we’ll score more than the home side and so, with ‘top spot’ back in our own hands following yesterday’s result in North London, this is a City win for me. 🤞
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:
Prediction: Win
Result: Lost – last game of the season; with the title already ‘in the bag’ and both the Derby F.A.Cup and Champions League finals looming large of the horizon.
(Pre-match blog posting from that game)
Expected weather conditions during the game: Quite breezy but fine otherwise. Dry and 11C is the very mild forecasted temperature for a night game in February.
Oh by the way…
…and before my blog announcement, were you aware that you are following a soulless football club? Were you aware that, whilst you were asleep, our country has also moved into a society whereby you are guilty before a trial has even taken place and that your beloved football club is akin to…Dubai; a country with an horrendous human rights record for all sorts of reasons?
You weren’t?! Well…you might want to have a look at this then from around the 2-hour mark.
And to think, I had a series-link record on for Matt Lucas and Andrew Mensah’s Fantasy Football League. Deleted. 👎 Morons…
Blog announcement
There’s a small chance that I won’t be doing a blog-posting ahead of our home-league fixture against Everton on Saturday 10th February. This is due to me-perhaps being busy preparing for a week’s holiday that starts on the 10th itself. We’ll see.
However, what IS for sure is that I won’t be doing a piece while I’m away for our trip to FC Copenhagen on Tuesday 13th February nor for our home-league encounter with Chelsea on Saturday 17th; albeit I’ll be back in the afternoon for that match.
Next up for me, blog-wise after the Chelsea game, will be our home game against Brentford, ironically, on Tuesday 20th February.
Still, I’m aiming to set off on holiday extra early in order to watch the 12:30pm kick-off (GMT) Everton game live and I’ve pre-checked with my venue of choice that they’re showing it 👍. I might miss the Copenhagen match but, as I say, will be back home in time to watch us in action against Chelsea.
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| Solidarity |
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