EPL - Blackburn vs Manchester City
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Blackburn - Manchester City
Saturday, 15 August 2009
Channel 27: - 10:00 pm "Live"Big spending Manchester City boss Mark Hughes will be without £17million striker Roque Santa Cruz as his side travel to Blackburn for their Premier League opener.
The Paraguay international is recovering from a knee operation and is expected to be out until September as City's big money signings struggle for fitness ahead of Saturday's game.
Hughes has spent almost £100million on big-name signings during the summer and his team will be under intense pressure to deliver when they travel to his former club.
Debuts
Of the major new signings, Kolo Toure, Gareth Barry and Carlos Tevez could all make their debuts at Ewood Park.
Emmanuel Adebayor, a £25million signing from Arsenal, faces a race against time to make his debut after returning from international duty for Togo with a slight groin injury.
Fellow £25million man Carlos Tevez is in contention to make his debut after overcoming a minor heel problem while Craig Bellamy has overcome the knee injury which kept him out of the Wales squad in midweek.
Meanwhile, Belgian international Vincent Kompany is still sidelined with a toe injury while midfielder Michael Johnson will need another two weeks to recover from an abdomen injury.
Blackburn
Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce's main concern heading into the match is the availability of captain Ryan Nelson who is struggling with a knee injury sustained in the 2-0 defeat to Dundee United last Saturday.
Australian midfielder Vince Grella and defender Chris Samba are both fit and are expected to start as Rovers look to dent City's title credentials early on.
New signing Nikola Kalinic is still waiting for a work permit therefore South African striker Benni McCarthy looks likely to start in attack.
Possible starting XIs
Blackburn: Robinson, Jacobsen, Warnock, Nelsen, Samba, Pedersen, Emerton, Andrews, Grella, Diouf, McCarthy
Man City: Given, Richards, Dunne, Toure, Bridge; Wright-Phillips, Barry, Ireland, Bellamy; Robinho, Tevez
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Originally posted by omgukilledkenny:
Blackburn vs Man City
Blackburn: Robinson, Jacobsen, Samba, Givet, Warnock, Diouf, Andrews, Nzonzi, Pedersen, Roberts, McCarthy.
Subs: Brown, Grella, Khizanishvili, Gallagher, Olsson, Hoilett, Di Santo.
Man City: Given, Richards, Dunne, Toure, Bridge, Wright-Phillips, Ireland, Barry, Robinho, Adebayor, Bellamy.Subs: Taylor, Onuoha, Zabaleta, Petrov, Tevez, De Jong, Weiss.
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The "possible starting line up" got everything spot on except for Adebayor/Tevez.
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wah adebayor scored
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Why I never see adebayor score like that for Arsenal ah?
But I think Hughes will have a difficult time this season as more teams will work harder as they would want to beat or hold them this time and won't treat their meeting as normal... Hughes never experienced something like that before I guess...
But very soon, Manchester could be the power house of English football...
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IMO, City still would be unable to be a powerhouse anytime soon.
Good strikeforce, nice midfield, shaky defence. Moreover, their midfield is also attacking based.
Good strike force alone wont bring much.
To compete with Everton, Aston Villa Tottemham for europa would be more appropriate. -
Wa first time I've seen so many away fans wearing their team's jersey...fierce.
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wah, there raining now.
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Man city is like multi million piece of dung ......
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Holy...Villa down by two goals against Wigan.
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I belief City will come good by next year... This is like their first year with all the better quality players arriving... But they are like the Liverpool of 2 years ago, still inexperience over the season... But with Hughes, an attacking minded manager, they will learn this season and will be ready by next year. And not to mention better quality players will continue to arrive too.
I hope to see the day the 2 Manchester clubs lead English football... and I don't think its unrealistic... It could happen sooner than I thought...
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The 2nd goal finishing by Ireland was uber cool la.
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Man City's defense midfield needs to be beefed up, Blackburn was always playing in the manc'shalf.
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I think they already did a good job since it was an away game. Their away record last season was so dismal, I think it was two wins out of nineteen or something close...
The big four also win ugly sometimes, can't expect to dominate every game mah.