Roberto Di Matteo has vowed to come to Eastlands and attack and stick to his footballing principles which saw them race to automatic promotion last year.
City will be without Micah Richards who is still recovering from concussion after his knockout clash with Nigel De Jong, who is struggling himself after coming off with a reported ankle injury against Birmingham.
For me this poses a few problems in midfield. without the anchor of De Jong, Mancini may put his over-estimated faith once again in Patrick Vieira. This potentially takes a lot of authority out of our midfield, whilst still mentally sharp, it has become apparent that his legs have not followed suit. I fully believe that if Nigel would have stayed fit then we would have seen the Birmingham game out for a win - regardless of the fact it was Vieira who gave the penalty away (his second this season). Another possibility is to drop Gareth Barry into the holding role, a role he is acustomed to after being consistently deployed as Fabio Capello's anchor at international level. This would see Milner come into the midfield and take over Barry's distribution role. Yaya Toure has been passed fit which should make up the three man midfield, this again links back to Vieira's inclusion, the work-rate of Yaya and Vieira in the same midfield is somewhat frightening.
The front three has virtually picked itself, with the injury's to Balotelli and now Adam Johnson, the omen will be on Dzeko, Silva and birthday boy Carlos Tevez to provide the attacking flair. I expect Dzeko to start centrally and lead the line with Silva and Tevez playing just off him. The forward line have not quite gelled yet and has seemed to lack a little fluency, this obviously will come with time and hopefully we will see glimpses of what to expect today.The width again will be provided by the full backs, predominantly by Kolorov down the left. Boateng should start at right back after Kolo Toure's return to fitness to line up along side Vincent Kompany. The defence has been under scrutiny over the last few weeks after falling from the best defence in the league to a leaky, unstable unit with an over-dependence on Kompany.
West Brom will set out true to Di Matteo's word and play attacking football, the game should be open and suit our style allowing us to play our expansive fluent game.I think if we get an early goal then we should comfortably win the game.
Prediction - City 2 - 0 West Brom We certainly have the squad to be able to cope with injury's, sadly I think the result could depend on the inclusion of Patrick Vieira, but the more dynamic James Milner's inclusion should add an aggressive work-rate to our obvious superiority. Kolarov and Dzeko to score.
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