Huddersfield Town take on Manchester City at the John Smith’s Stadium on Sunday in front of the Sky cameras. It’ll be another chance for Town to test themselves, this time against one of the best footballing teams in the world right now.
There’s a possibility that Town could suffer another heavy defeat at City, but equally, we could pull off an historic victory, like we did against Manchester United. I’m going to enjoy the game regardless of the result.
Huddersfield Town v Manchester City – Match details
Kick-off: 4pm Sunday 26 November 2017
Tickets: Sold out
Referee: Craig Pawson – The only Town match he’s refereed before Sunday was our 1-0 victory over Newcastle earlier this season. He booked seven players in that game, so he’s not shy with the yellow cards. Town will have to be careful, and not jump into tackles.
Predicted lineup
To stop these posts from getting too long I’ve written about my lineup prediction for the Manchester City game on a different post. If you haven’t got the time to click then it’s pretty much the same team as the Man United game but with Flo in at right-back.
Pre-match comments
David Wagner played down Town’s chances against Man City. He likes to try and keep expectations low to the press and was very complimentary about what Pep Guardiola has done with City.
He also gave a rallying cry to fans, saying we’ll need a special atmosphere to get anything from the game to break the opposition’s 17-game winning streak.
Opposition info: Manchester City
I doubt many people need much introduction to Manchester City. After a fairly mixed first full season last year, Pep Guardiola has had an incredible start to this season. They’ve played 19 games so far this season, won 18 and drawn 1.
City play breathtaking football at times and have rolled over teams once they’ve got control of a game. They have a tendency to score heavily, putting away 40 goals in their 12 Premier League games so far this year. To put that into context, Town have scored 10 in their 12 games.
Man to watch: Kevin DeBrunye
I’m excited about the prospect of seeing Kevin DeBrunye in the flesh, so to speak. From the games I’ve watched on TV this season he’s looked sensational. His range of passing, shooting technique and speed are phenomenal. While I’m sure Town will have studied him in preparation for the game there’s a difference between knowing what he’s going to do and being able to stop it.
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Manchester City v Huddersfield Town history
We’ve played Manchester City 76 times, winning 22, losing 25 and drawing 29. So City have the edge but not by a huge margin.
The first match was a 1-0 defeat for Town back in November 1920.
Our most recent meeting was last season in the FA Cup, where Town’s second team held City’s second team to a 0-0 draw at the John Smith’s Stadium. City brought the bulk of their first 11 into their team for the replay and comfortably won 5-1.
The most notable meeting of these two sides came back in 1987, where Manchester City beat us 10-1 in a humiliating record defeat. Let’s hope we can at least keep City’s goals scored to single figures on Sunday.
Terrier Spirit prediction – 2-0 to Manchester City
Manchester City have been playing at a different level to everyone else in the Premier League this season. They’re a wonderful team to watch and I expect they’ll have too much for Town. However, I don’t think we’ll make it easy for them and I’m predicting a relatively tight 2-0 victory for City.
I don’t like predicting Town to lose, and I think this might be the first time I’ve done it this season. On the other hand, it’s hard to see any other result. It’s not just me that feels this way either, bookmakers have Town at long odds to win. If you’re feeling optimistic you can get 17/1 on Town to beat Man City at the time of writing.