Manchester City Preview

By Mark Heys
December 21 2006

Bolton will be targeting a third straight win at the City of Manchester Stadium this weekend as they take on a Manchester City team that has lost their last two matches.

A singular goal has made all the difference in the last couple of meetings between the two clubs at Eastlands as Bolton have collected valuable 1-0 wins against their near neighbours.

Last years encounter proved to be particularly memorable for the Whites as Gary Speed scored from the penalty spot with almost the last kick of the game despite City's earlier dominence.

The Wanderers have improved their away form dramatically ever since they defeated Portsmouth in September gaining ten points from a possible eighteen on the road over the last few months.

Last weekend's 1-0 win over Aston Villa was perhaps a tad fortune for Bolton but Sam Allardyce will be happy that his side have managed to score a number goals and keep clean sheets in recent matches.

Former City striker Nicolas Anelka will return to his old stomping ground for the first time since January 2005 and he will be keen to continue his form in front of goal for the Wanderers against his one time employers.

El-Hadji Diouf returns from a one match suspension to partner the Frenchman in attack, but fellow forward Kevin Davies is ruled out after picking up his fifth booking of the season against Villa.

Ricardo Gardner successfully came through his third reserve game on Wednesday evening and battles it out with Henrik Pedersen and Tal Ben-Haim for a place in the Wanderers back four.

Defenders Joey O'Brien and Quinton Fortune are still out of contention but Stelios Giannakopoulos should be fit to play despite withdrawing from the Villa game after just half an hour.

City boss Stuart Pearce will be without long term injury victims Sun Jihai and Trevor Sinclair for the visit of the Wanderers and his options have further been limited by the recent injuries picked up by Didi Hamann, Claudio Reyna and Micah Richards.

Hamann, who sensationally turned his back on a move to Bolton in the summer despite already having signing an agreement, has returned to Germany to have treatment on a back injury whilst Reyna (hamstring) and Richards (dead leg) also miss out.

Welsh international Ben Thatcher returns from serving a suspension but Italian forward Bernardo Corradi is ineligable following his sending off in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford a couple of weeks ago.

PREMIERSHIP RECORD

04/11/1995 MANCHESTER CITY 1 (Summerbee) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

30/03/1996 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (McGinlay) MANCHESTER CITY 1 (Quinn)

30/11/2002 MANCHESTER CITY 2 (Howey, Berkovic) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

05/04/2003 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Pedersen, Campo) MANCHESTER CITY 0

18/10/2003 MANCHESTER CITY 6 (Wright-Phillips 2, Distin, Anelka 2, Reyna) BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Nolan, Campo)

21/02/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Nolan) MANCHESTER CITY 3 (Fowler 2, Charlton O.G)

18/12/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 MANCHESTER CITY 1 (Barton)

07/03/2005 MANCHESTER CITY 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Diouf)

18/09/2005 MANCHESTER CITY 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Speed)

21/01/2006 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Borgetti, Nolan) MANCHESTER CITY 0

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 10

Won: 4

Drawn: 1

Lost: 5

CONNECTIONS

Nicolas Anelka, Peter Barnes, Peter Beardsley, David Cross, Tony Cunningham, Wyn Davies, Andy Dibble, Mike Doyle, Asa Hartford, Colin Hendry, Tony Henry, Freddie Hill, Steve Howey, Alan Kernaghan, Brian Kidd, Francis Lee, Stuart Lee, Billy McAdams, Neil McNab, Andy May, Jamie Pollock, Peter Reid, Paul Ritchie, Mark Seagraves, Barry Siddall, Nicky Summerbee, Gerry Taggart, Mike Walsh, Tommy Wright

IT HAPPENED WHEN BOLTON PLAYED CITY

City hadn't won a game all season prior to their game against Bolton in November 1995. Both sides had been languishing at the bottom of the Premiership but Alan Ball's City team came away with the win thanks to a goal from future Wanderer Nicky Summerbee.

Goalkeeper Gavin Ward made his Bolton debut against City in March 1996 and his first job as a Trotters player was to pick the ball out of the net following Niall Quinn's first minute header.

Bolton's first ever visit to the City of Manchester Stadium in October 2003 ended in disaster as City destroyed Bolton by six goals to two and all this came after the Wanderers had taken a first minute lead.

Jared Borgetti scored his first Premiership goal when these two sides last met eleven months ago. The Mexican international managed just one more league goal for Bolton prior to moving on to the Far East

Current Wanderer Nicolas Anelka is the record signing for both Bolton and Manchester City. Earlier this season Bolton paid Fenerbache a club record £8 million for the Frenchman whilst in the summer of 2002 a £10 million was required when City lured the player away from Paris Saint Germain.