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Manchester City Vs Watford
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Saturday 29 August 2015 Kick Off 3PM
Etihaad Stadium
So four games in and we head for our first match against one of the Premier League’s Superpowers, leaders Manchester city.
Form
Having played out a second successive goalless home draw to Southampton last Sunday the golden Boys succumbed 1-0 to Preston North End in the Capital One Cup. It was a lacklustre performance from a team largely made up of players who have not featured in the Premier league campaign and the consensus was that once again there seemed to be difficulties in creating chances. Migeul Britos was dismissed for the use of an elbow.
No such problems for our hosts tomorrow. Manuel pellegrini’s men have opened their campaign with away wins at West Bromwich Albion and Everton either side of a 3-0 demolition of reigning champions Chelsea and have yet to concede a goal.
Manchester City
City’s story since 2008 has been well documented so doesnlt really need repeating here. Suffice to say that the Abu Dhabi based owners have been extremely generous and transformed a club which could often be a bit of a train wreck, whilst having great support and occupying a soft spot in the hearts of many neutrals, into one of the richest in Europe. The team have been successful at home enjoying 2 premier leage wins in 2012 and 2014 but have yet to translate that into success on the European stage.
It has become a feature of the summer that City splash the cash and this year has been no exception with Raheem Sterling signing from Liverpool in a £49 million deal along with defender Fabian Delph from Aston Villa (£8 million), striker Patrick Roberts from Fulham (£12 million). Going the other way were Eden Djeko to Roma, John Guidetti to Celta Vigo, Jordy Hiwula to Huddersfield Town and James Milner to Liverpool. I suspect it’s safe to say that business has not yet been concluded at the Etihaad.
Watford transfer news
Plenty of speculation this week but nothing concrete – again it’s likely we’ll see players going in both directions before the end of the window.
Head to head
In 10 games between the two sides City have won 8, Watford 5 and 3 were drawn. Our last 2 appearances at the Etihaad were in the FA Cup in the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 seasons with city running out 3-0 and 4-2 winners. The second tie was memorable as we took a 2-0 lead and looked for a while as we might cause a huge shock. No such luck unfortunately! We last met in the league in the 2006/2007 season with both games ending in draws.
Man in the middle
It’s Mark Clattenburg... Simon Beck and Richard West are the assistants and James Adcock is the fourth Official. As far as I could see the last time he took charge of one of our league games was the premier league fixture against Bolton in 2006 when we lost to a Gary Speed penalty in injury time.
Enjoy the game and safe travels to those of you making the trip.
Do you have a different version Mex?
Yeah, I meant Dan!
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ah well, at least they're not disrespecting us and fielding a weakened team......