Riyad Mahrez will make his league debut for Manchester City in the league opener against Arsenal today.
The Algerian, a £60 million signing from Leicester City, will likely start in a line up that suits two wingers. On the opposite wing will be Raheem Sterling as he makes a somewhat surprise inclusion over Leroy Sane, after only enjoying a full week’s training.
The formation looks likely to be a 4-1-2-2-1 formation with Mahrez and Sterling providing the pace and trickery out wide, while Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva take the central midfield roles as a creative force, a position likely to be filled by Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva when they both return to full fitness.
There was much debate prior to today on who will be the centre back pairing with Pep Guardiola confirming a more youthful option of John Stones and Aymeric Laporte over captain Vincent Kompany and Nicolas Otamendi. The two experienced centre backs feature on the bench.
They will have their work cut out against the strike force of Pierre Emerick Aubaymeng and a double creative force of Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
In Unai Emery’s first line up as Arsenal manager, the team looks a more balanced outfit than under Arsene Wenger as it looks like he will be playing with two deeper midfielders of Granit Xhaka and Mattéo Guendouzi, who has impressed during pre-season.
The young Frenchman will enjoy a debut alongside Sokratis Papastathopoulos who comes into the defence to replace injured Laurent Koscielny.
If City is to take a foothold within the game, it will down their right side. The basis of attacks as either Sterling or Mahrez’s attacking qualities are superior to Arsenal’s makeshift left-back Ashley Maitland-Niles defensive skills.
Let us hope we came away from North London with a smile on our faces and three points in the bag. As everyone keeps saying, title defences are harder and there is no better place to do it at our potential title rivals.