Next Saturday, 30th of August 2014, a super confident Manchester City will entertain Stoke at Etihad Stadium for the third round of the English Premier League.

After a categoric win over the Premier League title contenders Liverpool last Monday, Manchester City seem to have recovered their confidence levels, which were somewhat pinched when they were defeated by Arsenal on the Community Shield final a few weeks ago.

Manuel Pellegrini’s boys were superior to Liverpool and, although they don’t seem to be at their best yet, they apparently are on a different quality level from all their direct opponents.

The 2014-15 Manchester City is not that different than last season’s team and on the match against the Reds last Monday, the Brazilian defensive midfielder Fernando, who arrived from FC Porto this Summer, was the only new face in the starting line-up. There is, nevertheless, one man that is clearly making a strong impact so far this season, a player that was taunted by injuries last term and that now seems to be at his best, the versatile Montenegrin forward Stevan Jovetic. It was the Titograd (now Podgorica) born player that led his team to their rampant win over Liverpool and it is very likely that he will cause a strong impact on the team throughout the season.

For the next Saturday match against Stoke, the Citizens’ boss Manuel Pellegrini is not yet certain if he will be able to count on Dzeko, who is currently injured, and he knows for sure that he will not rely on the contribution of Alvaro Negredo, who is sidelined with a long term injury.

As for Stoke, their season start has not been particularly impressive and a match against Manchester City at Etihad Stadium this week might not be the best way to bounce back. After a disappoint home defeat against Aston Villa on the opening match of the season, the Potters achieved a draw on the last minutes of the match against Hull last weekend, but Mark Hughes’ boys’ performance wasn’t by any means exciting.

Stoke City might, however, have found a way to increase the team’s motivation levels after their 3-0 win over Portsmouth for the Capital One Cup last Tuesday.

When both sides met at Etihad Stadium last season, the Citizens were granted a narrow 1-0 win, thanks to a lone goal by Yaya Touré on the second-half of the match. Manchester City are firm favourites for the next Saturday’s match as Stoke would need to create something very special in order to disturb the current champions at this particular moment.

Manchester City

Stats: W-2 L-3 D-0

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Stoke City

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

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Possible Line-ups

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

Stoke City (4-2-3-1) – Begovic - Bardsley - Shawcross- Wilson - Pieters - Sidwell- Whelan - Odemwingie - N’Zonzi - Arnautovic - Diouf

Prediction

Manchester City 3 Stoke City 0