Champions Manchester City will travel to a Bournemouth side keen to move up the ladder at the Vitality Stadium on February 24. As of the time of this article, the Cityzens are second in the Premier League, with 43 points from 20 games. On the other hand, Bournemouth have amassed 25 points from 20 games and are slowly gaining momentum. 

Bournemouth started life under new manager Iraola Andoni in a difficult fashion. The Cherries went nine Premier League games without a win. They opened their account for the season with a draw at home with West Ham before suffering defeats to Liverpool and Tottenham. Back-to-back stalemates with Brentford and Chelsea left them in the bottom zone. The next game was at Brighton and they fell to a 3-1 defeat. Dominic Solanke opened the scoring first before the home side rallied back to overturn the game. Three consecutive defeats followed that result as the Cherries only scored once in their three games against Arsenal, Everton, and Wolves.

The elusive first win of the season came on matchweek 10 against Burnley at home and the turnaround started from there. After the bashing at the Etihad against Manchester City, Bournemouth won six of their seven Premier League games to move up a bit on the log. They ended 2023 on a losing note at Spurs and their first game in 2024 also ended in a loss to Liverpool at the Vitality Stadium.

Meanwhile, Manchester City executed their summer transfer business with more precision, characteristic of Pep Guardiola’s reign at the club. Following a treble-winning campaign, City underwent a rebuild. The Catalan offloaded players like Cole Palmer to Chelsea, Riyad Mahrez to Al Ahli, Aymeric Laporte to Al Nassr, Ilkay Gundogan and Joao Cancelo to Barcelona, Benjamin Mendy to Lorient.

In turn, he bolstered the squad with acquisitions such as Josko Gvardiol from RB Leipzig, Matheus Nunes from Wolverhampton Wanderers, Jeremy Doku from Stade Rennes, and Mateo Kovacic from Chelsea. These signings have swiftly assumed pivotal roles, with Doku wreaking havoc on the left of City’s attack and Gvardiol securing a regular place in Manchester City’s defense.

Manchester City started the season well, defeating Burnley in the first game of the season thanks to goals from Haaland and Rodri. Then, they won their next five games against Newcastle, Sheffield United, Fulham, West Ham, and Nottingham Forest. However, their run was halted by Wolverhampton Wanderers. Afterwards, the champions dipped in form, suffering losses to Arsenal and Aston Villa and drawing against Liverpool, Chelsea, and Tottenham in their last seven games. However, they have slowly managed to close the gap with a run of three consecutive wins and some unimpressive results from the teams above them on the log.

Bournemouth’s record against Man City is less impressive and will need to be at a high level to get a draw from this contest at home. The Citizens have won each of the past meetings between the sides since 2015 and could take all three points again here because of the quality of their squad.

Match tickets

The epic match at Vitality Stadium in Bournemouth kicks off on Saturday 24th February 2024, at 5:30 PM UK time. 

Brentford’s 11,307-capacity stadium will be playing host to this fixture between a side fighting for survival and the defending champions.

Getting tickets for the Bournemouth vs Manchester City tickets could take a lot of work given the standard of this game. Hence, you are advised to search ticket reselling sites should they be expectedly sold out on each club’s channels. 

Team news

Line-ups

The Cherries have some players missing including summer signing Tyler Adams who is not expected to return until March. Ryan Fredericks and Maximillian Aarons’ return date is not certain yet. Meanwhile, Adam Smith, Hamed Traore, and Milos Kerkez should be available for the visit of the champions.  

Bournemouth XI: Neto (GK), Mepham, Hill, Zabarnyi, Aarons, Cook, Christie, Sinisterra, Kluivert, Tavernier, Solanke.

Manchester City have been without their talisman Kevin De Bruyne for most of the season because of a hamstring, but he returned with a bang by playing a crucial role in the comeback win over Newcastle United. Apart from the Belgian, Ederson, Manuel Akanji, John Stones, and Erling Haaland who are currently in the physio’s room should be back for this clash with this trip. 

Manchester City XI: Ederson; Josko Gvardiol, Ruben Dias, Kyle Walker, John Stones, Rodrigo, Julian Alvarez, De Bruyne, Jeremy Doku, Erling Haaland, Phil Foden.

Prediction

This season, Manchester City have not been the deadly, effective killing machine that we know them to be. However, the turn of the is when they usually get back their mojo. And with the return of De Bruyne, the team could be functioning at its fullest. 

Bournemouth will have to make their home advantage count by unsettling the visitors. The task is quite a huge one as they have lost to all the top 6 except Aston Villa so far this season. Iraola knows that his side can only stay up by winning games if they do not want to return to the Championship. 

However, their quality is like a drop of water when compared to Manchester City’s ocean. As such, they are underdogs. It is safe to say that this is a David vs Goliath battle. If Manchester City are in their element, Bournemouth would be lucky to concede only three goals.

Bournemouth 0-3 Manchester City