Next Sunday, 17th August 2014, Newcastle will entertain the current English Champions, Manchester City, at St. James’ Park for both sides' debut match at the 2014-15 EPL edition.

The Citizens have much to prove on their visit to St. James’ Park next Sunday after the team’s rusty performance against Arsenal for the Community Shield last weekend. Manuel Pellegrini’s boys looked fairly uninspired, allowing the Gunners to take control of the match from the very beginning and they went to break losing by 2-0. Manchester City looked a bit stronger and more organized during the second-half, although they were not good enough to stop Arsenal’s third goal on the 60th minute of the match.

Pellegrini presented his usual 4-4-2 formation with the newcomer Fernando pairing with Yaya Touré at the centre of the pitch and with Jovetic and Dzeko composing the team’s attacking duo up in the front. Although almost every single player was far from his best, the major problem for the Citizens, especially during the first-half, was their defence line. The centre back duo, formed by Nastasic and Boyata, lacked some routines and they were not able to withstand Arsenal's quality attacking game flow from the very beginning. Pellegrini was not able to count on some of his most important players, such as Kompany, Aguero and Zabaleta for last weekend’s clash, but that alone cannot be seen as an excuse for such a poor performance by the current EPL champions.

For the next Sunday’s match against Newcastle, the Chilean manager will certainly promote several changes in his team, as he will surely bring in almost all the international players who have only returned to work last week, something that will allow Manchester City to be closer to their full potential.

As for Newcastle, they will probably try to take advantage of some of the unrest that might invade the minds of Manchester City players’ after that disappointing defeat by the hands of Arsenal last weekend. The Magpies had some fairly interesting displays during the pre-season matches, especially against Real Sociedad and Schalke 04, where they obtained two convincing wins. Alan Pardew managed to bring in some quality players during the Summer, but the former Ajax attacking midfielder, Siem de Jong, and the versatile Argentinean forward, Facundo Ferreyra (who arrived on loan from Shakhtar Donetsk) will probably be the players to cause an almost instant impact on the team.

The last time both sides measured forces at St. James’ Park was back in January and Manchester City won the match 2-0, thanks to goals from Dzeko and Negredo. For next Sunday’s match, the Citizens are also to be considered favourites, although one can’t rule out this “renewed” Newcastle side, which tends to be fairly dangerous when playing at home.

Newcastle

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - WDWLW

Manchester City

Stats: W-2 L-3 D-0

Recent Form - LLLWW

Possible Line-ups

Newcastle (4-4-2) – Krul - Janmaat - Coloccini - Taylor - Santon - Tiote - Sissoko - Cabella - Colback - Siem de Jong - Cissé

Manchester City (4-4-2) – Hart - Zabaleta - Kompany - Nastasic - Kolarov - Fernando - Touré - Silva - Nasri - Jovetic - Dzeko

Prediction

Newcastle 1 Manchester City 1