After a two-week gap since our last Premier League game, football will return to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday as Fulham make the trip up from London.
Friday’s media watch brings us build up to that game, a smattering of transfer gossip, plus how the media saw City’s tense draw with Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Women’s Champions League last night.
But first to a statistical snippet from the Daily Mirror, who have calculated which players have produced the most chances so far this season.
They write: “Statistics collated by the Mirror’s data unit shows that Manchester City’s midfield maestro, David Silva, eight years after arriving in the Premier League, is showing no sign of losing his creative spark.
“The Spaniard has created 13 goal-scoring chances for his teammates in league games this season - a feat matched only by Liverpool’s Mo Salah - but he’s had more game time than Silva.”
Our magic man keeps producing the goods!
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Over to the BBC now, who covered City’s UCWL match in Spain on Thursday night.
Their report reads: “Manchester City Women were denied a superb away win after a late equaliser by Atletico Madrid in their 1-1 last-32 Champions League first-leg tie.
“Defender Gemma Bonner had nodded in a Caroline Weir near-post corner to give City a first-half lead, and Atleti cranked up the pressure in response.
“Amanda Sampedro and Ludmila Da Silva had efforts saved, while Elena Linari’s header was cleared off the line.
“It seemed City had done enough but Kenti Robles’ cross deflected in.
“The goal, with one minute of normal time remaining, was cruel after an impressive rearguard action from Nick Cushing’s side but they will still take a precious away goal back to Manchester for the second leg.”
Sticking to the European theme, but this time hopping over to Italy and transfer gossip, and City have been linked with Roma midfielder Lorenzo Pellegrini at Roma by Calciomercato.
Elsewhere, Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic has been talking ahead of Saturday’s Premier League game.
Sportskeeda report: “Jokanovic said comparisons between him and City boss Pep Guardiola are wide of the mark.
“‘I don’t use his style, I use my style and my players,’ Jokanovic told a news conference.
“‘We cannot compare, he’s one of the most successful managers, he showed similar style and it’s possible to play the way his team [do] in this competition. All the credit for him, he made a really important step for this game.
“‘But copying is normally bad – copy, and it’s not easy to catch this level that they show us is possible. We try to find our way and adapt ourselves and interpret what we can do to have the opportunity to win the game.’”
That’s all for today, we’ll be back at the same time tomorrow for more big game build up!
