Manchester City Preview

By Mark Heys
January 12 2007

Bolton hope for their first league win of the New Year against Manchester City on Saturday following last weekend's excellent 4-0 win over Doncaster Rovers.

The Wanderers have won six out of the last seven matches including a 2-0 reverse against City at Eastlands a month ago, but Bolton must beware that the side who comes to the Reebok Stadium is much more confident going into this weekend's encounter.

City have won all three of their league games since facing Wanderers in mid-December and manager Stuart Pearce will be hoping that the club can continue their form for the short journey across the North West.

Bolton on the other hand have won their last four league meetings against their near neighbours including the last match up at the Reebok which went 2-0 in the Trotters favour thanks to goals from Kevin Nolan and the now departed Jared Borgetti.

Sam Allardyce celebrates his Premiership manager of the month award having seen the likes of Stelios Giannakopoulos, Ricardo Gardner and Quinton Fortune all come through last weekend's win over Doncaster unscathed.

Defender Tal Ben-Haim is expected to play some part for Bolton despite seemingly looking likely to move on before the summer is through. The Israeli international is out of contract in May and looks destined to seek pastures new at the end of his current deal.

Iranian midfielder Andranik Teimourian may also once again get a chance to impress following his two goal showing last weekend and experienced Spaniard Ivan Campo is likely to return from a one match ban.

Jussi Jaaskelainen will take over from Ian Walker in goal and the likes of Kevin Nolan, El-Hadji Diouf, Gary Speed and former City player Nicolas Anelka are set to earn a recall to the starting eleven.

Henrik Pedersen is still a week away from full fitness having aggrivated a recent groin problem picked up over the Christmas period but young Irishman Joey O'Brien is definately out for the season. Abdoulaye Faye serves a one match suspension after picking up his fifth booking in the game against Liverpool two weeks ago.

City boss Stuart Pearce will be without the experience of Ben Thatcher and Claudio Reyna as both are in negotiations with other clubs about transfers elsewhere and there is also doubts over the fitness of Paul Dickov, Trevor Sinclair and Hatem Trabelsi.

Didi Hamann and Sun Jihai look also likely to miss the game after receiving treatment for respective back and hamstring problems. Youngster Stephen Ireland could make a quick return to action.

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

23/12/2006 MANCHESTER CITY 0 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Anelka 2)

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 11

Won: 5

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 twelve 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.

Anelka returned to the City of Manchester Stadium as an opposing player for the first time in December 2006 and responded by scoring both Bolton goals in a 2-0 away win