TEAM NEWS
Fabian Delph is back in contention after a month on the sidelines but Ilkay Gundogan is again ruled out. Kevin de Bruyne is available for Manchester City after recovering from a knee injury, although it remains to be seen whether he is ready to start.
Fit-again Burnley midfielder Steven Defour could make his first league appearance since January. The Belgian, who has recovered from a knee injury, missed the Clarets’ last game for personal reasons.
James Tarkowski is set to play despite withdrawing from England duty because of an ongoing groin problem, but Stephen Ward is out for several weeks after undergoing minor knee surgery.
MOTD COMMENTATOR’S NOTES
@Wilsonfooty: A delve into history for this one: Burnley have not won on City soil since the 1973 Charity Shield.
That game was something of an oddity. Held at City’s Maine Road, it featured neither the winners of the League or FA Cup (both Liverpool and Sunderland declined to play), and City’s old home was only about a third full.
The lack of interest in a competition which could be traced back to the Dewar Shield – first played in 1898 – so concerned the FA that they decided to move the season’s traditional opening game to Wembley in future.
It wasn’t the biggest footballing oddity of 1973 though – the FA Cup third-place match between Wolves and Arsenal must win that prize hands down. A Burnley win on Saturday seems unlikely – but, as you can see, stranger things have happened.
VIEW FROM THE DUGOUT
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola: “I don’t know if [Kevin de Bruyne] is able to play for 90 minutes but he has trained really well for the last two weeks and has no pain, so he is ready to be part of the group again.
“He is an important player for us. Every player that is out and comes back makes us stronger.”
Burnley manager Sean Dyche on Joe Hart’s return to the Etihad Stadium:“He’s very experienced now Joe, he’s played in enough big games of different sorts. “Obviously it’s a different kind of emotion, a club you’ve got a big history with and a recent history, but I think he’ll just want to get on with it and not overthink it.
“I didn’t bring him here to prove a point to anyone. I don’t want to speak for him but, if he’s got any point to prove, I don’t see why, other than to himself. And that is to continue to show what a top-class goalie he is.”
LAWRO’S PREDICTION
Burnley are on a run of seven points from their past three games, but I do not see them adding to that tally on Saturday.
Yes, I am sure the Clarets will try to make things difficult for Manchester City, but the way Pep Guardiola’s side will move them about, I don’t see them holding out for long.
I am tipping City to win comfortably.
Prediction: 3-0
MATCH FACTS
Head-to-head
- Manchester City have won four of their eight Premier League games against Burnley (D3, L1).
- The Clarets are winless in their last 14 league games away to City (D6, L8), with their last victory coming in a top-flight game at Maine Road in 1963.
- Burnley have only won one of the last 19 encounters in league and cup, a sequence spanning 43 years.
Manchester City
- City are the only Premier League side with a 100% winning record at home this season.
- Their 0-0 draw at Liverpool last time out means they could fail to score in back-to-back league games for the first time under Pep Guardiola.
- The only previous occasions a Guardiola-led team has failed to net in consecutive top-flight matches came in April 2014 and May 2015, by which point his Bayern Munich side had already secured the Bundesliga title.
- City are unbeaten in their last 33 Premier League games which have kicked off at 3pm (W29, D4), one short of a new record in that timeslot.
- Sergio Aguero has scored six goals in six games against Burnley in all competitions, including four goals in three home matches.
- Raheem Sterling has been involved in 14 goals in his last 12 home league games, scoring nine and assisting five.
- Sterling is set to make his 200th Premier League appearance, and will become the fifth player to reach that landmark before his 24th birthday, following in the footsteps of Wayne Rooney, James Milner, Cesc Fabregas and Gareth Barry.
Burnley
- The Clarets have beaten the reigning champions in each of their four previous Premier League campaigns. No side has a better win rate against the reigning champions than Burnley, with only Bournemouth and Manchester United matching their figure of 50%.
- The Clarets have gone 18 months and 51 games without being given a Premier League penalty. They were last awarded a spot-kick in a 3-1 defeat at Everton on 15 April 2017.
- Burnley have blocked 52 shots in this season’s Premier League – no other side has recorded more than 40.
- Sean Dyche can become the first English manager to win a Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium since Harry Redknapp did so with Tottenham in May 2010.
- Since then, visiting English managers have taken three points from 37 visits to the Etihad (D3, L34), losing the last 18 in a row.
Source: BBC News
