Bournemouth v Manchester City predictions

Where to watch

Sky Sports Main Event & Premier League, 5.30pm Saturday

Best bet

Manchester City and under 4.5 goals
1pt 8-11 BoyleSports

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Team news

Bournemouth
David Brooks, Lewis Cook, Lloyd Kelly and Illia Zabarnyi remain unavailable but Marcus Tavernier, Jefferson Lerma and Jordan Zemura hope to feature. Junior Stanislas might join the squad.

Manchester City
John Stones continues his rehabilitation from a thigh injury but Kevin De Bruyne and Aymeric Laporte could feature after recovering from illness.

Match preview

Manchester City are back to playing catch-up in the Premier League title race after last Saturday's 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest but they should return to winning ways when taking on Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.

The Citizens have frittered away 15 points on their league travels, which is already more than the 11 away points dropped over the whole of last season.

And they were dealt a harsh lesson at the City Ground, where a failure to take their chances was punished by Chris Wood's 84th-minute equaliser.

Pep Guardiola was understandably irritated after City had dominated the vast majority of the match but his team are still in the hunt and remain odds-on to retain their crown.

City relinquished another lead in Wednesday's 1-1 draw at RB Leipzig in the Champions League but there was no sense of panic after the contest in Germany and a business-like attitude could be evident on the south coast.

Guardiola should have a couple more options with Kevin De Bruyne and Aymeric Laporte pushing to return after bouts of illness but he may have to instruct his players to adopt a patient approach against the Cherries, who have been favouring a cautious, counter-attacking style.

Bournemouth's rope-a-dope tactics worked a treat at Wolves last weekend as they soaked up wave after wave of attacks before pinching the points with Marcus Tavernier's second-half goal.

Tavernier's intervention was the Cherries' only effort on target and they saw out the game quite comfortably against a Wolves side who began to run out of ideas.

The victory - Bournemouth's first in eight Premier League games - was enough to lift them out of the drop zone, but they still have a massive task on their hands and are expected to fall short. They are no bigger than 4-11 to be relegated.

The contest against City marks the start of a tough three-game spell featuring a trip to Arsenal and a home match with Liverpool, and it would take a huge effort for Bournemouth to emerge from that run outside the bottom three.

Any points they get from those games would be gratefully received but City are unlikely to be in a charitable mood.

Guardiola's side have an FA Cup fifth-round match a home to Bristol City to prepare for next Tuesday, but their entire focus will be on this weekend's assignment and they should register a fairly comfortable victory.

Key stat

Bournemouth's last nine league games have featured fewer than four goals

Probable teams

Bournemouth (4-2-3-1): Neto; Smith, Stephens, Senesi, Zemura; Lerma, Billing; Ouattara, Traore, Tavernier; Solanke.
Subs: Travers, Christie, Semenyo, Anthony, Rothwell, Fredericks, Vina, Moore, Mepham.

Manchester City (3-2-4-1): Ederson; Laporte, Dias, Walker; Rodri, Silva; Gundogan, De Bruyne, Grealish, Mahrez; Haaland.
Subs: Ortega, Lewis, Phillips, Palmer, Foden, Laporte, Gomez, Ake, Alvarez.