Premier League champions Manchester City will face Championship winners Burnley on the opening day of the Premier League campaign. Having just completed an unbelievable treble-winning season, Pep Guardiola’s team faces one of the club’s all-time best players in Burnley manager Vincent Kompany as their first obstacle on the road to making more club history.
Preview (Burnley vs Manchester City)
There haven’t been many indications that Man City will let their standards slip. They enter the new season as heavy favorites to win the Premier League. If they do, they will become the first team in history to win four consecutive championships. It would help their argument that they are the best team this nation has ever produced. However, they have a long way to go before they can start thinking about that. Losses to Atletico Madrid in preseason and Arsenal on penalties in the Community Shield may have raised some eyebrows.
There are still uncertainties around the futures of Kyle Walker and Bernardo Silva. This despite newcomers being undoubtedly on the way, it is debatable whether Man City has generally suffered this summer. The first rigorous examination of that idea will take place on Friday night when they open the new season. A group led by their illustrious former captain Kompany. Burnley is a significantly different team than the one that was demoted from the Premier League. Thanks to Kompany, who was able to quickly alter the Clarets’ footballing mentality. They won the Championship last season.
The Belgians will now have the opportunity to demonstrate their true standing among England’s elite. Most preseason forecasts had them at least escaping relegation. Burnley has been active in the transfer market. They have brought in Zeki Amdouni, James Trafford, Jordan Beyer, Dara O’Shea, Michael Obafemi, Luca Koleosho, Nathan Redmond, Lawrence Vigouroux, Jacob Bruun Larsen, and Sander Berge for a combined total of almost £75 million, in an effort to address the step-up in quality. The one blemish on their otherwise stellar preseason record from five appearances was a 2-0 loss to Genk as those newcomers worked to mesh before the actual work started.
Team News
Kevin De Bruyne of Manchester City was unexpectedly named to the matchday squad for the Community Shield after suffering an injury during the Champions League final. He came off the bench but missed a penalty in the shootout. In order to match his record numbers from his first season in England, when he scored an unbelievable total of 36 goals in just 35 matches, Erling Haaland will be the line leader.
Joao Cancelo has returned to the team and played in the preseason, so he could be a left-back option, though Manuel Akanji is more likely to start there. Kovacic may replace Gundogan in the starting lineup on a like-for-like basis right away. However, they could start a number of other newcomers, including Trafford in goal against his old team. Burnley’s biggest difficulty will be replacing Nathan Tella’s goals, who has returned to his former team Southampton. Kompany may choose to start Jay Rodriguez, an experienced line leader, to lead the line in this first game.
We anticipate the hosts to offer the champions a hard initial test since Turf Moor was a fortress in the Championship last season and it will be hopping as Premier League football returns under the lights on Friday. We might even back Burnley to win on the opening day if it were any other team. Man City is the best there is, and it will take more than a rowdy crowd to slow the treble-winners down. We are backing Man City to start their most recent championship defense in winning fashion because they have more quality overall and Burnley’s style of play may work against them.
Burnley 1 – 3 Manchester City
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