For City’s away Premier League opener against Burnley on Friday night, Pep Guardiola makes five changes.

Ederson, Nathan Ake, Rico Lewis, Kevin De Bruyne, the team’s captain, and Phil Foden all start for the team that faced the Gunners in the Community Shield opener last Sunday.

The men that need to make room are Stefan Ortega Moreno, John Stones, Ruben Dias, Mateo Kovacic, and Jack Grealish.

Along with summer signing Kovacic, Grealish, and Ortega Moreno get the start, and Josko Gvardiol, another summer transfer from Croatia, is also one of the substitutions.

Stones has been ruled out after suffering an adductor injury in practice, while Dias will not be playing tonight due to a concussion, according to Guardiola.

 

Teams

CITY: Ederson, Walker, Akanji, Ake, Lewis, Rodrigo, De Bruyne (C), Bernardo, Foden, Alvarez, Haaland

Subs: Ortega Moreno, Phillips, Kovačić, Grealish, Laporte, Gómez, Gvardiol, Palmer, McAtee

BURNLEY: Trafford, O’Shea, Beyer, Al-Dakhil, Roberts, Berge, Cullen, Koleosho, Vitinho, Foster, Amdouni.

Subs: Cork, Gudmundsson, Brownhill, Manuel, Redmond, Ekdal, Zaroury, Bruun Larsen, Muric

 

Strategy

Under Pep Guardiola’s guidance, City’s tactical fluidity and versatility have become their trademarks.

And tonight at Turf Moor, that versatility is expected to play a key role.

 

With Ederson returning as the recognizable figure in goal, it appears that a back four of Kyle Walker at right back, Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji paired centrally, and Rico Lewis at left-back will protect the goal. However, the teenager could also operate further forward in midfield if City deploys a back three.

Kevin De Bruyne, who is starting his first game since the Champions League final, and Bernardo Silva will be positioned beside holding midfielder Rodrigo in the crucial engine room.

A powerful-looking attacking trifecta up front, consisting of Phil Foden, Julian Alvarez, and Erling Haaland, is expected to start.

 

SETTING UP A BET

When it comes to Premier League debuts during the previous ten or so years, City has an excellent track record.

In 12 of the last 14 seasons, we have won our league debut game.

That stellar record has only been broken twice, and both times it was by Tottenham Hotspur.

In our 2010 season opener against Tottenham, City and we drew 0-0, and in our opening match of the 2021/22 season, we were defeated 1-0 by Spurs.

The ideal way to begin the new league season in East Lancashire tonight would be with another triumph.

 

FAMOUS ENEMIES

City need not be reminded of the prominence and influence of Clarets manager Vincent Kompany, who is a true Club legend as a result of his 11 fantastic years as a player at the Etihad between 2008 and 2019.

After departing from City in May 2019, Kompany went on to have a stellar administrative career, first with Anderlecht in his native Belgium and most recently at Turf Moor.

After taking over at Burnley in the summer of 2022 after they were demoted from the Premier League, Kompany successfully led the Clarets back to the top flight with the help of assistant manager Craig Bellamy, another former City favorite.

Burnley finished the season 10 points ahead of second place and easily captured the Championship.

James Trafford, a former City youth player, makes his Clarets debut as well.

The opening match of the Premier League against the Triple Champions will now serve as an acid test.

 

FIGURES AND FACTS

Head-to-Head

In their last 23 league games against City, Burnley has only won once (D6, L16), losing the last eight by an average score of 26-1.

In 11 straight wins over the Clarets across all competitions, City has scored 40 goals while only allowing one.

Burnley

In two of their eight Premier League seasons (D1, L5), Burnley has won its first game. They triumphed 3-2 at Chelsea in 2017 and 3-0 at home against Southampton in 2019.

The Clarets’ lone home league defeat last year (W16, D6) came at the hands of QPR in April, just after they had already won promotion.

They have, however, dropped five of their past eight Premier League games at Turf Moor.

Burnley has not scored a goal in each of their three Friday Premier League games (D1, L2).

In 152 home Premier League games, they have never been shown a red card.

The first Belgian manager in the Premier League will be Vincent Kompany. No Burnley manager has ever led the Clarets to victory in their opening match in a competition.

City of Manchester

To become the first English team to win four straight top-flight championships, City must succeed.

A Premier League team has only ever opened the scoring and gone on to win the competition once.

Liverpool did so in 2019–20, even though Grant Hanley’s own goal gave them a 4-1 victory over Norwich.

The current Premier League champions haven’t participated in the opening game since Leicester’s 2-1 defeat against newly promoted Hull City in 2016.

The last time City played in the Premier League on a Friday was in May 2021, when they defeated Newcastle 4-3 thanks to a hat-trick from Ferran Torres.

The only team Pep Guardiola has a better record against is Arsenal (16 triumphs), who he has defeated in both league and cup competitions 15 times.

Erling Haaland, who scored twice in City’s season-opening Premier League match at West Ham last year, also scored three goals in his only other matchup with Burnley, a 6-0 victory in the FA Cup quarterfinals.