Pep Guardiola’s men travel to newly promoted Norwich City as the clear favourites with the champions looking every bit as unstoppable as last season.
Free scoring Argentine Sergio Aguero is aiming to become only the third player – the first for City – to have ever scored in a club’s first five matches of a season, after Arsenal’s José Antonio Reyes and Man United’s Wayne Rooney achieved the feat in 2004-05 and 2011-12 respectively.
Norwich City have endured a difficult month back in the Premier League as the Canaries find themselves second from bottom having lost three times, conceding more goals (10) than any other side in the division along the way.
The home side may have impressed in patches in all four of their Premier League fixtures but no one would blame them for ending without a point against the likes of Liverpool and Chelsea.
A tougher foe is in town however and the Canaries’ poor defensive record has every chance of being damaged even further when a rampant looking Manchester City side visit East Anglia.
No team has scored more goals in the Premier League so far than Pep Guardiola’s team, with the Citizens hitting the net 14 times in their first four fixtures.
Norwich have shown they are no bums going forward and with the EPL Player of the Month Teemu Pukki in their fold, the hosts have enough quality to breach the Citizens’ rearguard however.
There is good reason why Manchester City are the heavy favourites, though, with the Citizens generally ruthless against newly promoted clubs – they are unbeaten in their last 25 fixtures against the freshest Premier League outfits, winning 20 and drawing the other 5 since 2015.
It won’t be surprising to see more of the same on Saturday.
Team News
Norwich
Tom Trybull has joined Timm Klose and Onel Hernandez on the sidelines with an ankle injury, while centre-backs Grant Hanley and Christoph Zimmerman remain doubts.
Manchester City
Aymeric Laporte is set for a long spell on the sidelines so Pep Guardiola will be hoping that John Stones is fit to start following a thigh injury.
Ilkay Gundogan returned from international duty due to illness but should be fit for the weekend, while Gabriel Jesus should also be back in contention.
Match stats
Man City have won 17 of their last 18 matches (Premier League).
There have been over 2.5 goals scored in Man City’s last 5 games in the Premier League.
Man City have scored at least 3 goals in their last 3 away league matches.
The free-scoring Citizens scored three goals or more in 75% of their Premier League matches since the summer.
Man City have been winning at both half time and full time in 5 of their last 7 EPL away matches.
Player to watch
Man City’s Sergio Agüero has been involved in eight goals in his five Premier League starts against Norwich, scoring five and assisting a further three.
Sergio Agüero has scored in Man City’s four Premier League matches this season; only two players have ever scored in a club’s first five matches of a season – José Antonio Reyes for Arsenal in 2004-05 and Wayne Rooney for Manchester United in 2011-12.
Prediction
Both teams scored in 75% of Norwich’s Premier League fixtures to date in 2019/20, and the Canaries have already shown enough quality going forward to suggest that they can register a goal against a Man City team with an underwhelming recent defensive record (just two clean sheets from five).
Tip: Both teams to score
This post was last modified on September 14, 2019 4:17 am
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