Treble winners Manchester City take on newly promoted Burnley in the opening game of the new Premier League season on Friday.
Man City dominated in all competitions last campaign, winning the league, FA Cup and Champions League title.
4
Pep Guardiola has since lost his captain Ilkay Gundogan but has added some new faces to his side in Mateo Kovacic and Josko Gvardiol.
The Citizens’ got their season underway with the Community Shield but were beaten by likely title rivals Arsenal at Wembley.
This could encourage Vincent Kompany’s Clarets who will be heading into the toughest possible start with hopes of pulling off a shock.
Man City legend Kompany led Burnley to the Championship title and will now take to the dugout in the Premier League against his former boss.
Burnley vs Manchester City: talkSPORT coverage
This Premier League clash will take place on Friday, August 11.
Kick-off at Turf Moor is scheduled for 8pm.
talkSPORT will have exclusive live coverage of the game presented by Adrian Durham.
Commentary will come from Jim Proudfoot and former Republic of Ireland midfielder Andy Townsend.
talkSPORT.com will also be running a live blog to cover all the action as well.
To tune in to talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2 through the website, click HERE for the live stream.
You can also listen via the talkSPORT app, on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.
4
Burnley vs Manchester City: Team news
The hosts have welcomed Wout Weghorst back into their squad after the striker spent last season on loan at Manchester United.
He could lead the line with Anass Zaroury and one of their new arrivals Nathan Redmond, Jacob Bruun Larsen, Zeki Amdouni or Luca Koleosho flanking him.
Man City academy graduate James Trafford may make his competitive debut for the Clarets in goal.
The Premier League’s top scorer last season Erling Haaland started in the Community Shield on Sunday but was substituted just after the hour mark.
Kevin De Bruyne came off the bench at Wembley in what were his first minutes of pre-season with his starting position for this one in doubt.
Only Nathan Ake is an injury concern for City after the defender didn’t play against Arsenal following a knock picked up against Bayern Munich in a friendly.
4
Burnley vs Manchester City: What has been said?
After defeat in the Community Shield at the weekend, Guardiola looked ahead to Man City’s busy schedule.
He said: “Win or lose, right now I know the position of the team.
“We have to recover well and prepare for Burnley and then travel to Athens, play at 10pm, finish at 2am come back and play Saturday against Newcastle at home. This is my plan.
“We would love to have won today absolutely but sometimes you have to accept it and give credit to your opponent.”
4
Burnley vs Manchester City: Match facts
- Erling Haaland – who scored twice in Man City’s opening Premier League game last season – scored a hat-trick in his only previous game against Burnley, in a 6-0 win in last season’s FA Cup quarter-final.
- Vincent Kompany is set to become the first Belgian to manage in the Premier League – no Burnley manager has ever won their first Premier League game in charge of the Clarets (D1 L3).
- Treble winners Manchester City finished their 2022-23 Premier League campaign with a draw against Brighton and defeat against Brentford. They’ve not had a longer run without a league win since a run of four in March/April 2017 (D3 L1).
- Burnley lost just one home league game in 2022-23 (W16 D6), going down 2-1 against QPR in April. However, as a Premier League side they’ve lost five of their last eight at Turf Moor (W3).
- This is Manchester City’s first Premier League match on a Friday since May 2021, when they won 4-3 at Newcastle United with Ferran Torres netting a hat-trick. Meanwhile, Burnley have never won or scored a Premier League goal on a Friday, drawing one and losing two of their three such matches.
- This is the first time the reigning Premier League champions are playing the very first match of the season since 2016-17, when Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester lost 2-1 at newly promoted Hull City.
- Manchester City have won their opening Premier League game in 12 of the last 14 seasons, with both exceptions coming against Tottenham Hotspur (0-0 in 2010-11, 0-1 in 2021-22).
- Burnley have won their opening game in just two of their eight previous Premier League seasons (D1 L5), winning 3-2 at reigning champions Chelsea in 2017-18 and 3-0 at home to Southampton in 2019-20.
- In all competitions, Man City have won 11 games in a row against Burnley, scoring 40 goals and conceding just one. They beat them 6-0 in the FA Cup last season, inflicting the Clarets’ heaviest defeat since losing 6-0 to City themselves in March 1999 in a league game.
- Burnley have won just one of their last 23 league matches against Manchester City (D6 L16) and have lost the last eight in a row by an aggregate score of 26-1.
The new talkSPORT match centre
Keep up-to-date with all the latest football fixtures, results and standings in our new match centre.
