Manchester City return home prior to the international break with managers hoping to accumulate a high number of points before a break in Fantasy Football action.
My choices in the last three games have not proved correct and will not be used as an expert guide to the Premier League’s FF campaign. At least I could blame City’s sloppy performance for not accumulating the points with my chosen three last week.
I can be hopeful again this time around.
At the Etihad Stadium, the Premier League champions are odds-on favourites to take three points from the Saturday evening fixture.
City has scored nine goals in the last two league meetings at the Etihad, with one player scoring eight of them.
As a result, Sergio Aguero is my first pick and my captain, in the hope he will be banging in the goals against his favourite team. The Argentine has 14 goals in just 11 appearances against Newcastle, which is currently a record for goals scored against an opponent for a single club.
The next choice is purely down to assists and with Newcastle likely to sit deep, a replica of their performance against Chelsea last weekend, there is only one magician who can unlock that potential stubborn door.
David Silva will be looking to thread the ball through a compact defence but will he find his target. Of course he will, he always does.
The Spaniard will be the main threat in Kevin De Bruyne’s absence and the players will be looking to Silva for the answer if they draw a blank in the first 45 minutes.
Now do I chose another midfielder, a winger or go back to defence in the hope of a clean sheet. Both previous fixtures ended 3-1 and 6-1 with a clean sheet certainly due against the north-east side.
I will be banking on Pep Guardiola to go with a flat back four so I’m going to chose one of the two fullbacks. Kyle Walker is a good choice but Benjamin Mendy has got the nod due to his performances in August.
He has provided width down that left-hand side and will be a certainty in whatever formation the manager has chosen. Those powerful crosses will bring the points home this weekend.
This week choices don’t reflect my current FF team.
My Team: K Schmeichel (Leicester City), V Van Dijk (Liverpool), A Robertson (Liverpool), N Ake (Bournemouth), B Silva (Manchester City), R Neves (Wolves), R Sessegnon (Fulham), M Kovacic (Chelsea), R Sterling (Manchester City), S Aguero (Manchester City), W Zaha (Crystal Palace)