City v Hull Tigers Preview

[dazby]

Apologies for the lateness of loading this thread guys. A big thanks and well done to Clippo21 for his first preview.
Enjoy...

City V Hull City Tigers

Saturday 31st August 2013

Etihad Stadium

12:45 Kick Off

Referee: Phil Dowd

City will be eager to bounce back after last weekends disappointing result, (I think we've all heard enough about that so I'll leave it there!) whilst the Tigers will be looking to match their 2009 result at the Etihad where they claimed a point.

Skipper Kompany will again miss out and with Micah also still sidelined. We can expect to see Nastasic back in the defence alongside Lescott, unless Javi Garcia has managed to retain his place. At the other end of the field Pellegrini has a wealth of attacking options to choose from. Jovetic is still to make his debut, and with City having 6 goals so far this season all from different scorers, Pellegrini will be confident of goals whoever he picks. Focus will be on Joe Hart if he starts as expected, with crucial qualifiers coming up against Moldova and Ukraine, Hart could be playing for more than just his place in the City team.

Hull enter the game on the back of a morale boosting win against Norwich, proving a difficult side to break down even with only 10 men, and a Capital Cup victory against Leyton Orient midweek. Yannick Sagbo is the only confirmed absentee for the game, other than that Bruce has a full squad to pick from. Of the Tigers' current strikers, only Danny Graham has scored at the top level in England - but even then only briefly, and not in his last 18 games. The visitors' best bet on Saturday may be to follow Cardiff's example and test out that set-piece marking again.

And to finish some match facts:

Head-to-head

Manchester City and Hull City have met four times in the Premier League - each club has one win apiece, with two draws.

Hull have only won away at Manchester City once in 11 games across all competitions. That was a 2-1 win at Maine Road in the fifth round of the FA Cup - in 1930.

The biggest victory either club has achieved over the other was a 5-1 win by Manchester City in the Premier League on Boxing Day in 2008.

Manchester City

City conceded twice from corners in their loss at Cardiff. They only conceded six times from corners throughout the whole of last season.

Losing to Cardiff was the first time City have lost a league game before December since 2010.

Manchester City only lost one game from a leading position last season (Tottenham away).

Twenty of Edin Dzeko's 31 Premier League goals have come away from home.

Hull City

Last weekend against Norwich, Yannick Sagbo received Hull's fastest-ever Premier League red card.

They have now received five red cards in their last 15 Premier League games.

The victory over Norwich was Hull's first win in nine top-flight matches (since a 2-0 home win against Fulham in March 2010).

Robbie Brady scored the first goal for Hull at the KC Stadium in the Premier League since Kevin Kilbane (in their 4-1 home defeat against Burnley in April 2010).
- See more at: ucp.php?i=pm&mode=view&f=0&p=17996#sthash.DSdIpWQq.dpuf

[barryconlonsbaldspot]

Nice read on the train there! Cheers

[Beefymcfc]

Is that copied from the Beeb?

Only joking, good first effort; short and to the point. It's wierd looking at those stats and seeing we've only won once against them in the Prem. That was a cracking game which was remembered for the 'Sit Down in Front of the Fans' piece by Tango Man. It was still funny when Bullard did the season after although the score wasn't quite so endearing.

Looking forward to it and thanks for the effort.