This weekend, Manchester City travels to Bournemouth in an attempt to hold onto the top spot in the Premier League standings.
Despite being undefeated in the Premier League thus far, City travels to the South Coast after losing to Tottenham 2-1 in the Carabao Cup’s fourth round on Wednesday night.
Guardiola will be hoping to have a team that is still good enough to leave the Vitality Stadium with three points, as they too go south while dealing with an injury problem.
In light of that, below are the predictions made by prominent analysts about City’s performance versus Andoni Iraola’s team.
Merson, Paul
“This is a tough game for Manchester City because Bournemouth is good at home,” the former Arsenal player and Sky Sports analyst told SportsKeeda.
“City is now winning games even if they are not performing at their best. They fielded a team with a lot of changes, which demonstrates where their priorities are this season, but they fell to Tottenham in the league cup midweek. They aim to be in the Premier League or the Champions League.
“They are undoubtedly lacking Kevin De Bruyne’s inventiveness. Since Rodri made it possible for them to get up the pitch rapidly, his absence has also had an impact on them. The squad has suffered because, with all due respect to Mateo Kovacic, he is more of a ball-carrier than a fast passer like Rodri.
“As they are receiving the results, it is okay for the time being because you do not receive extra points for winning 5-0 or 6-0. I anticipate that happening once again this weekend.