Manchester City vs Huddersfield Town

BPL 2018-19 – Manchester City vs Huddersfield Town Match Preview



League champions are back in action as they make their home opener against relegation threatened Huddersfield. Man City as expected got off to a winning start, Huddersfield picked up a defeat. Man City are coming into this game as huge favourites as pretty much everyone expects them to dominate their opponents, but can Huddersfield surprise us? Let’s get into the preview

Manchester City

Man City have picked off right where they left off last season with a great start to this season with wins over Chelsea in Community Shield and Arsenal in the Premier League opener beating both 0-2. Man City haven’t even got all of their main guys back, but their strength in depth has really allowed to continue to dominate at the start of this season. Man City were never really threatened by Arsenal in the opening game, they dominated possession as usual, made their chances count and won. There was a bit of shakiness from goalkeeper Ederson as he gave the ball away a few times but Arsenal were unable to make those mistakes punished and Ederson got away with some really horrible passes at the back. Man City have really punished Arsenal with their wing play, as Sterling Mahrez and overlapping runs by full backs Walker and Mendy have cause Arsenal a ton of problems, in fact both goals came from the wing play as Sterling cut in to score the first goal and the second was Mendy putting a ball in from the wing from which Bernardo connected to score. Players that mainly stood out from the game were Bernardo and it seems like Bernardo is really going to have a fantastic season this year. Also, Mendy made his first league start since September last year and was a massive threat going forward from full back, he even got both assists and Sterling was sublime being a constant threat on the wing. All around, Man City simply looked fantastic and they didn’t even have Kompany, Sane, D.Silva or KDB in the starting lineup. Seriously ridiculous to even think about it.

Coming into the game against Huddersfield, Man City are still not going to be at full strength but they are still expected to play their dominant possession goal scoring football. One bit of bad news has struck the champions as Kevin de Bruyne is sidelined with a 3 month injury and he will definitely be out for this clash joining Danilo and Mangala on the injury list. The latter two not being that important. There is a possibility that David Silva could return but will most likely come off the bench. Man City could very likely start the same team as they did last week unless Pep decides to rotate some players because he wants to since City are such a deep side.

Huddersfield Town

It was a disappointing, but an expected start for Huddersfield losing 0-3 to Chelsea. Now it’s fair to say that Huddersfield would feel hard done by with that result as their performance wasn’t too bad overall. In the first half, they threatened Chelsea but two defensive lapses killed off the game and Chelsea had a comfortable second half which was a little unfortunate for Huddersfield. Huddersfield looked dangerous from crosses, they caused Chelsea problems with long balls and should’ve had a goal from a corner as they hit the post once. Overall, it’s not a game that Huddersfield can be ashamed off, they simply lost to a better, much more clinical side and unfortunately for them coming into the second game the challenge is even tougher as they take on the champions Manchester City who they surprisingly enough troubled last season in both meetings, even managing to pick up a point in this exact fixture at the Etihad. It will be very hard to repeat that feat however since City players are not having a title winning hangover this time around like they did last season as they played Huddersfield right after clinching the title. It will take a lot of hard work for Huddersfield to get something out of this.

Looking at team news and how to expect Huddersfield to set up we will definitely see them sit back and try to hold City off. Everyone knows Huddersfield are nowhere near on the level of City and trying to go at them would be suicidal. Huddersfield’s main threat going forward will be set pieces and long balls, they are a very direct side. Huddersfield have a few players missing coming into this game, frustratingly some key defenders are out including Mathias Jorgensen and new signing Erik Durm. Midfielder Jonathan Hogg is also a question mark. These are some key misses for Huddersfield and coming into a game like this it makes it even harder for them. We may see their newest big signing Diakhaby make a start as he made a decent impression coming off the bench in the opening game.

Hardly anyone gives Huddersfield a chance here, but there’s a reason games are played and they’ve shown last season that they can compete with City. Obviously this could go really bad, but there’s always a chance they catch City on a bad day. Huddersfield can only work hard, hope and pray really.

What to Expect

Expect City to dominate. Yes, last season Huddersfield competed really well with City but the fact is, Huddersfield will need to really play above their capabilities to have a chance here. City are in fantastic from beating Chelsea and Arsenal, we don’t believe that KDB being out will affect them because City have unreal depth and can just play Bernardo and Gundogan. We can expect City to put a few goals past Huddersfield. Huddersfield as mentioned will miss a few key players and that will hurt them. Our prediction is a dominant 4-0 City win. City -2.5 or even a -3.5 asian handicap should definitely come through.

Match Odds (TonyBet)

Manchester City Win – 1.09

Draw – 12.25

Huddersfield Town Win – 32.00

KICK OFF – 19th August 2018 – 1:30pm UK Time