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Preview: Stoke City vs. Manchester City
Who will win Saturday's clash between Stoke and Man City?
Stoke
Draw
Man City
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By Barney Corkhill , Staff Reporter
Filed: Thursday, August 18, 2016 at 15:05 UK
Last Updated: Friday, August 19, 2016 at 09:11 UK
Pep Guardiola will look to continue his 100% start to his time in charge of Manchester City when they take on Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium in Saturday's lunchtime Premier League kickoff.
The hosts opened their campaign with a draw against newly-promoted Middlesbrough, and will be hopeful of springing a surprise this weekend to claim their first win of the season.
Stoke
When the fixture lists were released, Stoke will have targeted their opening match of the campaign as a good chance to get some early points on the board.
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It certainly looked like their best opportunity to do so in the first few weeks, with matches against the likes of Everton and Tottenham Hotspur following this weekend's clash with title favourites Man City.
As it was, though, the Potters were forced to
settle for a point against the newly-promoted Middlesbrough, with Xherdan Shaqiri's 67th-minute strike cancelling out Alvaro Negredo 's debut opener.
Three consecutive ninth-place finishes would suggest that Stoke will be able to hold their own in the trio of tricky fixtures coming up, but in a season that has seen so much movement in the transfer market - and consequent improvement of many of the teams around them in last season's table - Mark Hughes 's side have been worryingly quiet.
The arrival of Joe Allen for £13m from Liverpool has been their one major signing, with Ramadan Sobhi and Ryan Sweeney the only other two new faces to arrive at the Britannia Stadium so far.
Crucially, Hughes has avoided losing any key players - most notably Marko Arnautovic - but their window has not exactly scaled the heights of last season, when the likes of Shaqiri,
Giannelli Imbula and Joselu all arrived at the club.
Competition for a top-half finish is expected to be greater this year than ever before, so Stoke may need further reinforcements before the August 31 deadline if they are to keep up their impressive recent record in the top flight.
In Hughes, though, they have a manager who has so far delivered on his promise to evolve the team, and he will welcome one of his former clubs to the Britannia knowing that Guardiola has not come up against a similar test too often in his trophy-laden managerial career.
Recent form: D
Man City
Upon his arrival in England, Guardiola declared that his motivation for leaving Bayern Munich was the desire to test himself in another league and against another style of football.
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While Stoke are no longer quite the long-ball bruisers they once were, the fixture list has certainly given Guardiola what he wanted early on with opening matches against Sunderland and the Potters.
Things were not exactly straightforward in their curtain-raiser last weekend, despite Sergio Aguero giving them a lead from the penalty spot after just four minutes.
City utterly dominated possession throughout, as expected, but clear chances were few and far between and Sunderland looked as though they might nick a point when Jermain Defoe levelled things up, only for the hosts to be rescued by an own goal three minutes from time.
Victory at home to the Black Cats via a penalty and an own goal is not exactly the swashbuckling start to Guardiola's reign that many would have expected, but it is still early days in the Spaniard's revolution and the players are sure to improve as they increase their understanding of the manager's philosophy.
There were better signs in midweek as City all but secured their place in the Champions League group stages with a 5-0 away victory over Steaua Bucuresti - a match that saw Aguero miss two penalties in the opening 21 minutes but still go on to score a hat-trick.
The Argentine has now scored 10 goals in his last nine appearances for the club, while his penalty on the opening day took his Premier League tally for 2016 to a league-high 18 goals in just 19 outings.
Whether Aguero maintains his fitness throughout the season could well prove to be a deciding factor in the title race, and City have certainly splashed the cash to ensure that he is surrounded by quality too, spending almost £150m on eight players.
More could still arrive if recent reports are to be believed, with Joe Hart seemingly set to become the most high-profile of casualties from Guardiola's arrival. The England number one has been left out of the first two games of the season amid the club's reported interest in Barcelona's Claudio Bravo .
Yaya Toure is another who has so far not got a look-in under the new manager, but in these very early days the results have made it tough to argue with Guardiola's selection as he goes in search of a seventh league title from his eight years as a coach.
Recent form: W
Recent form (all competitions): WW
Team News
Hart's days at Manchester City appear to be numbered, and he is once again expected to miss out this weekend in favour of Wilfredo Caballero .
In front of him, the fit-again Nicolas Otamendi is expected to start alongside £47.5m summer arrival John Stones , who has so far made a solid start to his Manchester City career.
Vincent Kompany remains sidelined along with
Ilkay Gundogan , while there are lingering doubts over both the fitness and the futures of Toure and Samir Nasri.
Leroy Sane could potentially feature having missed the start of the season with a hamstring problem, but any game time is likely to come off the bench as Raheem Sterling and Nolito are expected to retain their places.
Aguero will lead the line as ever, and will be looking to add to his tally of six goals in six Premier League games against Stoke.
The Potters' main team news also surrounds the goalkeeping situation, with Hart's international understudy Jack Butland fighting to be fit in time for the weekend after an ankle injury kept him out of the season opener.
Arnautovic scored twice the last time Stoke hosted Man City and is expected to start alongside Bojan Krkic and Shaqiri again.
Glen Johnson remains out with a quadriceps injury, while Ibrahim Afellay and Stephen Ireland will not play again until next year.
Stoke possible starting lineup:
Butland; Bardsley, Shawcross, Wollscheid, Pieters; Imbula, Allen, Shaqiri, Bojan, Arnautovic; Diouf
Man City possible starting lineup:
Caballero; Sagna, Stones, Otamendi, Clichy; Fernandinho, Silva, Sterling, De Bruyne, Nolito; Aguero
Head To Head
Stoke have fared quite well against Man City in recent seasons, winning two of their last four meetings having only managed one win in the 14 clashes prior to that.
That includes the corresponding fixture last term as Arnautovic's brace gave Stoke a 2-0 win, although City gained revenge with a 4-0 drubbing at the Etihad in April.
City have only ever won once away to Stoke in the Premier League, though, drawing five times, losing twice and scoring just four goals in the process.
We say: Stoke 0-1 Man City
This will be an interesting test for Guardiola and City, and they will know that an improvement is needed from their opening-day win over Sunderland. Stoke will not make it easy for them, but we are backing City to scrape through once again and continue their perfect start to the season.
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how much be tfare from Lagos to Warri abeg?

What team has the cuter players?

Go MAN CITY!!!!

Mukina2..


This is a new season o..

Shey I think say you don repent and promised me to start putting LFC games on the frontpage?

FCK both

WasereSupport:
It definitely will be a shocker if Man City doesn't take home another 3 points from Stoke.

Britannia stadium is one hell place to go for any top club. City will beg for draw today. Quote me

Joe Hart starting from the bench again while Yaya is no where to be found. Pep, only time will tell

Let the game begin

Fabulocity:
What team has the cuter players?

see you u are nt dia class

Fabulocity:
What team has the cuter players?

see you,you are nt dia class

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
My head knows that Stoke doesn't lose too often at home but my foolish hands still want ahead to pick man city straight win so my heart is definitely rooting for a city win here today.

Draw match

I know, I'm way above them.
I'm asking to know who I'd support anyway.

Slimflame:
see you u are nt dia class

Fabulocity:
I know, I'm way above them.
I'm asking to know who I'd support anyway.

leave them joor....wait till 3'pm wen chelsea play watford...dn u trow dat support for us...irep Chelsea

I'll always support Chelsea, anytime any day.
But this one, I no even know who to support sef.

Slimflame:
leave them joor....wait till 3'pm wen chelsea play watford...dn u trow dat support for us...irep Chelsea

Insha Allah, in Jesus name and in anything you believes Man City will lost.
#teamGunners

Fabulocity:
I'll always support Chelsea, anytime any day.
But this one, I no even know who to support sef.

stoke city abeg

ogahope:
Joe Hart starting from the bench again while Yaya is no where to be found. Pep, only time will tell

These players are nothing and none of them can determine guardiola failure or success at man city.

I guess you haven't forgotten Olequer, Zambrotta, Marquez, Van Brockhorst, Deco, Ronaldinho, Guily, Maxi Lopez, and others? They were the best and the heart of Barcelona prior to Guardiola taken over, he came, dispatched all of them and at the end, without them, he ended up winning everything in his first season at Barcelona.

Britannia is a terrible place to go. it either u win them and your key players get injury or they humiliate you.

OK booking incase

GAME ON!

Oga Mod, Na beg we dey ooh. If you can feature Mancity match for frontpage, please include Liverpool matches too. This is a new season and Liverpool get fans for nairaland too. If we had embarrased your team in on way or another, please forgive and forget. (because I know Liverpool is capable of doing that often, mancity 4-0, Chelsea 3-0, Barca 4-0 et al. Thank you YNWA. Bro Luvola, make una resume your job oh

luvola:
Britannia is a terrible place to go. it either u win them and your key players get injury or they humiliate you.

Lol.... You don get am

shurlar50:
Oga Mod, Na beg we dey ooh. If you can feature Mancity match for frontpage, please include Liverpool matches too. This is a new season and Liverpool get fans for nairaland too. If we had embarrased your team in on way or another, please forgive and forget. (because I am Liverpool is capable of doing that often, mancity 4-0, Chelsea 3-0, Barca 4-0 et al. Thank you YNWA. Bro Luvola, make una resume your job oh

All I can see is draw for mancity.