Behind Enemy Lines: Manchester City

Manchester City

Form: LWW

League position: 7th

What to expect

After consecutive 1-0 losses to Spurs and the mighty Leicester City, Man City have somewhat bounced back with two straight 5-0 drubbings, albeit against relegation favorites Arsenal and Norwich.

With Guardiola in charge fantasy managers might not know which players to expect on the pitch, but the style and results have been largely the same every week.

Before the international break they fully deserved all 5 goals after dominating 80% of possession and peppering the Gunners with 25 shots.

The Foxes will be hoping for a much closer contest, but can still expect opposition who will look to retain the ball and score plenty.

Key Player

As I hinted at above, it’s usually hard enough to predict who Pep will play, let alone which of those many stars will be the key on the day.

That’s not so much the case this weekend. With Zack Steffen testing positive and Ederson falling foul of Brazil’s bizarre insistence on enforcing domestic bans, it could be down to Scott Carson between the sticks.

On paper he’s a pretty good 3rd choice: former England international who’s had 6 seasons as a regular no.1 in the Premier League and Turkish Super Lig.

In practice, his last cap was 10 years ago and at 36 he’s played 1 game since the end of the 2018/19 season.

They did pick up all 3 points that day, but only after conceding 3 to Newcastle.

Clearly this is far from ideal for the champions, and a weakness we’ll be looking to exploit.

Fantasy Impact

Jamie Vardy loves to score against Manchester City. Across his whole career, only Arsenal have taken a larger share of his goals.

Being forced into Carson in goal might change their style a little, backing off from the super high lines that he exploits so well, but you have to think the goalkeeper situation can only make him more like to score.

Always bet on Jamie Vardy.