Premier League champions Manchester City started their title defence in style as they picked up their first three points of the campaign in the season opener against Arsenal last Sunday. The Citizens looked to have started from where they left off in the previous term and went on to beat the Gunners by 2-0 in convincing fashion. They will be facing Huddersfield Town in the next match on Sunday at the Etihad Stadium in what will be their first home match of the 2018/19 Premier League season.
City, however, have been hit with a major blow as their ace playmaker, Kevin De Bruyne, has picked up an injury in training recently. This would see him miss the clash against the Terriers and there is also a possibility of the Belgian midfielder missing a major chunk of the season. Though the 27-year-old featured only as a substitute in the first match against Arsenal, his likely absence for the next two months would surely give manager Pep Guardiola a new headache while selecting his starting eleven for the upcoming matches.
Guardiola had gone in with a 4-2-3-1 formation in the first match, and it is not expected that he would change it against David Wagner’s side. He has a fully fit squad at his disposal except for De Bruyne, and our guess is that he would stick to the same starting eleven from the last match.
Predicted 4-2-3-1 Manchester City Lineup Vs Huddersfield Town
Formation- 4-2-3-1
Defence
Ederson is set to start in the goal, guarded by the quartet of Benjamin Mendy, Aymeric Laporte, John Stones and Kyle Walker. The defensive lineup showed great composure against the Gunners, and they would be expected to do the same against Huddersfield as well.
Midfield
New signing Riyad Mahrez was handed his first Premier League start of the season in the Arsenal match, and he showed why Guardiola wanted him so badly in his squad. He would start once again on the right flank. Ilkay Gundogan, Fernandinho and Bernardo Silva, will be the central midfielders.
Raheem Sterling would start on the other wing and will hope to recapture the form from the last game where he bamboozled the Arsenal defence with his swift footwork and opened the scoring for the Sky Blues in stunning fashion. While Leroy Sane did not make the starting lineup in our calculation, we could very well see Pep selecting the German from the start itself.
Attack
The frontline will be led by the Argentine star Sergio Aguero. Gabriel Jesus is set to come off the bench in the latter stages of the game according to our calculations.
