Blackburn will host a Tevez-less Manchester City on Saturday as the Citizens look to return to winning ways after the midweek European debacle. City had the day off Wednesday but returned Thursday to train for the last game before the International break. Certainly a break welcomed by Mancini and City fans alike and allow the Tevez saga to be handled behind closed doors without the quick succession of games that will face City when the teams return to action.
To the game Saturday and Manchester City have recently done very well against Blackburn. The last time City lost to Blackburn happened September 2007 when City were beaten away from home, 1-0. That game was also the last time City didn’t score against Blackburn. Since that defeat City and Blackburn have met in the league a total of seven times with City winning four and drawing the other three.
Edin Dzeko scored the only goal in the corrosponding fixture last season to secure the win in April of this year. Mancini would be hoping for the same, or better this go around. It is certainly all set up for City to totally decimate Blackburn but as we all know, football doesn’t work like that and surprises happen all the time. Blackburn find themselves at the wrong end of the table and their manager under pressure from their fans, whereas Manchester City have been pretty much free scoring in the majority of their Premiership games so far.
Ironically the last time City did destroy Blackburn was in the January 2010 home fixture where, you guessed it, Carlos Tevez scored a hat-trick! My prediction is that he will not do that again for City but I do think City will be hungry to go into the International break on a high. With this in mind I think a 4-0 win would not be out of the question and my starting lineup would be as follows:
Hart, Richards, Kompany, (K)Toure, Kolarov, (Y)Toure, DeJong?, Silva, Nasri, Aguero and Balotelli.