The Premier League season is upon us once more and first up for City is a trip to the Midlands to face a West Brom side full of confidence after a strong end to last season under Tony Pulis.
City have taken advantage of the summer break to improve the squad, with record signing Raheem Sterling our biggest buy at £49 million; midfielder Fabian Delph has also joined, as well as youngsters Patrick Roberts and Enes Unal. The only player expected to start out of that quartet is former Liverpool man Sterling, with Delph side-lined for the opening three games of the season with a hamstring injury and City’s young recruits Roberts and Unal looking for a loan or confirming a loan move away respectively.
Another absentee is French left-back Gael Clichy, who has an ankle problem. This would suggest a starting spot for Aleks Kolarov, although the Serbian has been heavily criticised by City fans in recent seasons; prompting large sections of the Etihad crowd to persuade Pellegrini to invest in that area of the pitch.
City’s South American heroes Pablo Zabaleta; Martin Demichelis, Fernandinho and Sergio Aguero; all of whom missed out on pre-season; return for the game at The Hawthorns, after a longer break because of their participation in last term’s Copa America. David Silva and Samir Nasri, together with Aguero, have overcome illness to start.
West Brom’s former City defender Joleon Lescott is a doubt to play against his old team due to an undisclosed injury, however Pulis is hopeful he will be available to face City after missing two days of training with the knock. Baggies’ new signings Rickie Lambert; James McLean and James Chester are all in line to start, but Arsenal loanee Serge Gnabry is unavailable.
In what is a good omen for City if they manage to actually win; each of the last five Premier League champions have started their title season on Monday Night Football on Sky Sports.
City have won the last seven meetings between the sides, scoring 19 goals and conceding 5. We won both Premier League encounters against the Baggies last season, with Fernando scoring in both fixtures. We recorded an impressive 1-3 win away at The Hawthorns last December, scoring three first half goals, before the home game ended in a 3-0 win; the game in which Wilfried Bony opened his account for The Blues.
Be sure to stay tuned @ReadManCity for all the build-up to the match, as well as reaction from it in the coming days.
