The most anticipated match of this season’s Premier League is finally here. The top boys of England for the 2017/18 season face off in what promises to be a mouth-watering clash. The two teams of Manchester were heavy spenders in the summer bringing in a host of new talent to add to their already quality enriched squad.
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City team has displayed tremendous form since the start of the season and are seemingly looking like the best side not just in England but in Europe at the moment.
Jose Mourinho’s men have fallen behind their ‘noisy neighbours’ for the moment but an eight-point gap is not much in a league where anything can happen till the last blow of the whistle, ask Ferguson. The Scot had his Red Devils leading the team by 8 points with six games left in the 2011-12 season only to lose the title on the last day in the last minute of the tournament to none other than Sergio Aguero and his Manchester City team.
As the two teams square off, there is endless hype surrounding the match. There are old rivalries to settle between Jose and Pep, who, regardless of what they say, will not want to lose to each other. There is City’s own Premier League record of making it a 14th win on the trot and overtaking Chelsea and Arsenal and as fate would have it, United is the last obstacle that stands between them and the record.
As for United, they know anything but 3 points would effectively mean handing over the title to their bitter rivals and the temptation to being the first team to inflict a defeat upon City this season will surely be the driving force for Jose’s men.
As the build-up continues, here is how we can hope to see Pep set his team up for the match.
Formation: 4-3-3
Defence
Ederson will be expected to in between the sticks for Pep’s men and tasked with starting off attacks as Pep always likes to have all eleven ball work to initiate the attack.
The right-back position is likely to go to Kyle Walker and he will have to work hard to avoid a defensive nightmare against Rashford or Martial, whoever is thrown at him. The left-back will be marshalled by the effective Fabian Delph.
The centre-back pairing is likely to be Vincent Kompany and Nicolas Otamendi. They will be asked to keep the beast of Romelu Lukaku tamed for the match.
Midfield
The three-man midfield is likely to consist of the ever consistent David Silva despite missing out the midweek match with an injury. Fernandinho will be the one sitting in deep and allowing his teammates to run into spaces in front of him. Kevin De Bruyne will be the man to watch out for and the Belgian will not get a bigger stage than this to showcase his incredible talent.
Attack
A terror striking trio of Sergio Aguero, Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane will be spearheading the City attack with Gabriel Jesus and Bernardo Silva ready to come off the bench should the need arise.
