Next Saturday, 8th of November 2014, the current English champions, Manchester City, will travel to Loftus Road to measure forces with QPR for round 11 of the English Premier League, a match the Citizens need to win in order not to let Chelsea and Southampton run free at the top of the table.

After an important win over their neighbours and rivals of Manchester United last weekend, the Citizens had another major slip-up in the middle of week, when they entertained CSKA Moscow at the Etihad Stadium. City’s UEFA Champions League campaign has been a complete disaster, with the team sitting alone at the bottom of their group with just two miserable points from four matches. After getting nothing better than a lucky draw from their visit to Moscow two weeks ago, Manuel Pellegrini’s boys were surprised at home by an ambitious CSKA that granted the three points, thanks to two Seydou Doumbia goals during the first-half.

After a quick analysis to the match, one would easily understand that Manchester City’s game flow is miles away from what they portrayed last season. There is a lack of ideas in the midfield line, their defense looks fairly sloppy, especially both centre backs, who have been particularly uninspired during the match.

The speculation has already begun regarding Pellegrini’s future at the helm of the Citizens and some sports media have claimed today that Pep Guardiola might be the next line, if the Chilean manager fails to solve his side’s problems in time.

It was expected that a win against their all-time rivals would give City the necessary motivation to sweep the turmoil under the rug, but, instead of that, they returned to the bland and uninspired displays against the Russian champions.

Next Saturday’s match against QPR could turn out to be fairly complicated, due to the home side’s urgent need of points and because of their inconsistency, which transforms them into a highly unpredictable team, especially when playing at home.

As for QPR, after their home win against Aston Villa last week, they failed to grant their second consecutive win when they visit the all-powerful Chelsea over the weekend. Despite their 2-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge, it is fair to say that The Hoops are improving and, if they continue at this pace, they might very well find a way to grant a place at the English Premier League next season, thus avoiding another painful and financially catastrophic relegation.

Although QPR look fairly stronger recently, Manchester City are favourites to win the next Saturday’s match, but it also possible that the home side finds a way to snatch a draw at least.

QPR

Stats: W-1 L-4 D-0

Recent Form - LWLLL

Manchester City

Stats: W-1 L-3 D-1

Recent Form - LWLLD

Possible Line-ups

QPR (4-4-1-1) - Green - Caulker - Dunne - Yun - Isla - Fer - Henry - Hoilett - Sandro - Vargas - Austin

Manchester City (4-4-2) – Hart - Zabaleta - Kompany - Mangala - Clichy - Fernando - Touré - Navas - Nasri - Dzeko - Aguero

Prediction

QPR 1 Manchester City 2