Manchester City Preview

By Mark Heys
December 14 2007

Bolton Wanderers hope to become the first team to win at the City of Manchester Stadium so far this season when taking on their local rivals and European hopefuls Manchester City on Saturday afternoon.

The Trotters have won on their last three visits to Eastlands but it promises to be a much tougher fixture this timme around as City have been re-born under the management of former England boss Sven Goran Eriksson and as such have made their home into somewhat of a fortress.

Six weeks ago the two sides met in a highly contraversial League Cup tie at the Reebok Stadium where City won 1-0 thanks to a dubious late penalty from their Brazilian playmaker Elano.

Wanderers are on a mini revival themselves having beaten Manchester United, Red Star Belgrade and Wigan Athletic in recent weeks and the 4-1 win over the Latics last weekend will have been the perfect tonic going into yet another local derby.

Bolton manager and former City midfielder Gary Megson has more or less the same squad to choose from which defeated Wigan nine days ago and that includes one time Citezens favourite Nicolas Anelka.

Swiss midfielder Blerim Dzemaili is making good progress following a long term knee injury but Joey O'Brien (hamstring), Heidar Helguson (ankle) and Ricardo Vaz-Te (knee) are still out.

City chief Eriksson will have Elano back in contention after the Samba star was sidelined recently with a hamstring problem and Belgian striker Emile Mpenza could also feature after having a thigh injury.

Youngster Daniel Sturridge (hip) and Valeri Bojinov (knee) will be out of action as will midfielder Stephen Ireland who is serving a suspension following his sending off against Spurs.

LAST TIME WE MET:

31/10/2007 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 MANCHESTER CITY 1 (Elano (Pen))

BOLTON WANDERERS: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Joey O'Brien (Lubomir Michalik), Andy O'Brien (Ivan Campo), Abdoulaye Meite, Jlloyd Samuel, Danny Guthrie, Gavin McCann, Mikel Alonso, Kevin Nolan, El-Hadji Diouf, Stelios Giannakopoulos (Daniel Braaten)

SUBS NOT USED: Gary Speed, Ali Al-Habsi (GK)

MANCHESTER CITY: Andreas Isaksson, Vedran Corluka, Micah Richards (Nedum Onuoha), Richard Dunne, Michael Ball, Stephen Ireland, Michael Johnson, Didi Hamann (Gelson Fernandes), Javier Garrido (Darius Vassell), Elano Bulmer, Georgios Samaras

SUBS NOT USED: Rolando Bianchi, Joe Hart (GK)

PLAYED FOR BOTH:

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

DID YOU KNOW:

Bolton have lost just once on their visits to the City of Manchester Stadium. This occured in the 2003-2004 season when City ran out 6-2 winners and after Kevin Nolan had given the Wanderers a first minute lead.

Former City manager Kevin Keegan resigned after playing Bolton in March 2005.

Tommy Wright was the last player to move between the two clubs in January 2001. The veteran Northern Irishman was brought to the Reebok by Sam Allardyce to cover for a goalkeeping crisis.