Pre Match Manchester City v Leicester City

[Blue Maniac]

Bit bored today, BM?

Yeah, at work.

 

[Orifice]

Your memory might be playing tricks on you. They’ve only played five Boxing Day games ever, and one of those was in 1913. They also played Christmas Day that year. How old are you exactly?

Ok. Sod off!

I lived around Manchester and Liverpool in the 1970's and I remember my Uncle Norman, big Liverpool fan, saying that they always played each other, seemingly, on boxing day. I was pre-teens at that time.

Happy Christmas!

 

[Blue Maniac]

Ok. Sod off!

I lived around Manchester and Liverpool in the 1970's and I remember my Uncle Norman, big Liverpool fan, saying that they always played each other, seemingly, on boxing day. I was pre-teens at that time.

Happy Christmas!

This makes sense. There was a Boxing Day game in 1974, and late December (but not Boxing Day) games in 1975 and 1976.

 

[City Fan]

Who cares that we seem to consistently play these teams on Boxing Day? We have to play them at some point.

It wasn’t that long ago we were playing against Hull and Burnley on Boxing Day - would you all prefer that?

Jesus wept I thought I moaned a lot…

 

[Ike O'Noclassed]

When I was younger, so much younger than today, Man City used to play Liverpool every Boxing-Day - it was known and excepted. Over Christmas, teams used to play other 'local' teams.
Now we just play Man City and Liverpool.

I thought this, but checking Fossils and Foxes, it was never really a thing for us - I thought it was play one game on Christmas Day and the return on Boxing Day back in the old days. But it was clubs like Rotherham and Fulham, rather than Forest, Cov or Shaggers, and seems to have died out completely by the 1970s (though the terrible drainage on the Filbert St pitch might have had something to do with it)

 

[Blue Maniac]

Who cares that we seem to consistently play these teams on Boxing Day? We have to play them at some point.

And we didn’t play either one in December last season

It wasn’t that long ago we were playing against Hull and Burnley on Boxing Day - would you all prefer that?

Last time we played Burnley on Boxing Day was 1958

Jesus wept I thought I moaned a lot…

You do

 

[Micky]

Who cares that we seem to consistently play these teams on Boxing Day? We have to play them at some point.

It wasn’t that long ago we were playing against Hull and Burnley on Boxing Day - would you all prefer that?

Jesus wept I thought I moaned a lot…

You do, you miserable twat.

 

[SJN-Fox]

As it seems we’re likely to get a right good seeing to here, we might as well play the youngsters and give the first teamers an extra couple of days in readiness for the Liverpool game.

 

[Jeff]

Head-to-head

• Manchester City have won eight of their past 10 Premier League games against Leicester.
• Leicester City won 5-2 in last season's corresponding fixture, with Jamie Vardy scoring a hat-trick. They have never beaten Manchester City away from home in consecutive league seasons.

Manchester City

• Manchester City's run of eight Premier League wins is the longest current streak of any team. They have scored 24 goals and conceded just three during this period.
• They are top of the Premier League table on Christmas Day for the third time, after 2011-12 and 2017-18. They went on to win the title in both of those seasons.
• The Blues are the first top-flight club to win 34 league games in a calendar year.
• They have scored a club record 106 top-flight goals in 2021.
• City are unbeaten in eight home league games on Boxing Day, winning each of the last six in a row. Their last such defeat came in 1996-97 against Port Vale in the second tier.
• Riyad Mahrez has been on the losing side on all five of his Premier League appearances on Boxing Day - the worst record in the competition's history.
• Raheem Sterling can score in four successive Premier League matches for the first time since September 2017.

Leicester City

• Leicester have already equalled last season's final tally of three league away defeats.
• They have lost all four Premier League games this season against teams in the top five by an aggregate score of 10-1.
• They have scored and conceded in their last 15 Premier League away matches, the longest such run of any top-flight team since Burnley did so in 16 matches between April 1961 to March 1962.
• Their only win in their past 11 Premier League fixtures on Boxing Day came against Manchester City in 2018-19.
• Jamie Vardy has never scored in six Premier League appearances on Boxing Day.
• However, Vardy has eight Premier League goals versus Manchester City, including two hat-tricks.
• James Maddison has been directly involved in six goals in his last four Premier League games (three goals, three assists), the same tally as in his previous 26 appearances.
• Brendan Rodgers can become the second manager to win a top-flight away match versus a Pep Guardiola team in consecutive seasons, emulating Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for Manchester United in 2019-20 and 2020-21.

 

[SJN-Fox]

Referee: Chris Kavanagh.
Assistants: Harry Lennard, Dan Robathan.
Fourth official: David Coote.
VAR: Paul Tierney.
Assistant VAR: Scott Ledger.

 

[Robin127]

Cool, a blind man on VAR duty.

 

[Micky]

Lambs to the slaughter. This game is a hideous thought.

 

[Bezu Fache Fox]

Lambs to the slaughter. This game is a hideous thought.

I'll be going for a long walk and ignoring the game. I'm not letting it ruin my day.

 

[TommyK]

The Premier League has postponed Everton's match at Burnley on Sunday because of coronavirus and injuries.

Everton were originally rebuffed by the league in their application to have the game called off.

But a Premier League statement on Friday said it had reviewed the club's request "following further injuries to the squad"

Further injuries? I didn't think that effected calling games off. Surely we can get ours postponed?

 

[Graz]

Why does it seem like we always play Man City and Liverpool around this time every season?

I was thinking back to 2 years ago. Didn't we have identical fixtures to this?

Or might've been Liverpool on 22/23rdish (last game before Christmas Day) and then Man City on Boxing Day.

Think we were still 3rd at the time. Then got absolutely outplayed and outclassed in both and that set off our tumble through the rest of the season before COVID and before we dropped out of the top 4 (the first time)

At least the same can't happen again this time... Hopefully it doesn't set off a similar bad (worse?) run though!

 

[FOX Franks]

Head-to-head

• Manchester City have won eight of their past 10 Premier League games against Leicester.
• Leicester City won 5-2 in last season's corresponding fixture, with Jamie Vardy scoring a hat-trick. They have never beaten Manchester City away from home in consecutive league seasons.

Manchester City

• Manchester City's run of eight Premier League wins is the longest current streak of any team. They have scored 24 goals and conceded just three during this period.
• They are top of the Premier League table on Christmas Day for the third time, after 2011-12 and 2017-18. They went on to win the title in both of those seasons.
• The Blues are the first top-flight club to win 34 league games in a calendar year.
• They have scored a club record 106 top-flight goals in 2021.
• City are unbeaten in eight home league games on Boxing Day, winning each of the last six in a row. Their last such defeat came in 1996-97 against Port Vale in the second tier.
• Riyad Mahrez has been on the losing side on all five of his Premier League appearances on Boxing Day - the worst record in the competition's history.
• Raheem Sterling can score in four successive Premier League matches for the first time since September 2017.

Leicester City

• Leicester have already equalled last season's final tally of three league away defeats.
• They have lost all four Premier League games this season against teams in the top five by an aggregate score of 10-1.
• They have scored and conceded in their last 15 Premier League away matches, the longest such run of any top-flight team since Burnley did so in 16 matches between April 1961 to March 1962.
• Their only win in their past 11 Premier League fixtures on Boxing Day came against Manchester City in 2018-19.
• Jamie Vardy has never scored in six Premier League appearances on Boxing Day.
• However, Vardy has eight Premier League goals versus Manchester City, including two hat-tricks.
• James Maddison has been directly involved in six goals in his last four Premier League games (three goals, three assists), the same tally as in his previous 26 appearances.
• Brendan Rodgers can become the second manager to win a top-flight away match versus a Pep Guardiola team in consecutive seasons, emulating Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for Manchester United in 2019-20 and 2020-21.

That Riyad Mahrez stat is straight up ****ing weird.

 

[give_us_a_wave]

The 9-0 record already looks under threat. We have no players left, they're on a roll, we have a manager who appears to be just guessing lately.

Then we get Liverpool.

****ing shit Xmas guaranteed.

Then Claudio will probably knock us out of the cup.

When does the cricket season start?

Merry Xmas everyone.

 

[Miles Away]

I think there’s a really strong chance we send out a very weak side here.

can’t predict because I have no idea who is fit but Daley-Campbell, Choudhury, Nacho, Perez, Bertrand, and possibly even Nelson and one or two others.

Maybe even Benkovic?!?!?

 

[glyn]

I was thinking back to 2 years ago. Didn't we have identical fixtures to this?

Or might've been Liverpool on 22/23rdish (last game before Christmas Day) and then Man City on Boxing Day.

Think we were still 3rd at the time. Then got absolutely outplayed and outclassed in both and that set off our tumble through the rest of the season before COVID and before we dropped out of the top 4 (the first time)

At least the same can't happen again this time... Hopefully it doesn't set off a similar bad (worse?) run though!

we also had them both over Christmas in the title winning season. 0-0 v MC, 0-1 v Liverpool and the media were all over us in terms of it being over, and we were being found out. Followed by a dodgy draw against Villa if I recall.

 

[City Fan]

we also had them both over Christmas in the title winning season. 0-0 v MC, 0-1 v Liverpool and the media were all over us in terms of it being over, and we were being found out. Followed by a dodgy draw against Villa if I recall.

Bournemouth I think.