August 19, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nBournemouth’s last fixture against City proved to be pivotal, as their 1-1 draw in May both confirmed their place in Europe and saw Arsenal confirmed as Premier League champions.<\/p>\n
This time around, Marco Rose will be at the helm instead of Andoni Iraola, and the German is relishing the opportunity to coach in the English top flight.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s exciting, for sure,” said Rose ahead of Bournemouth’s trip to Etihad Stadium.<\/p>\n
“They are a top club with a top coach and a top squad. I watched three of their pre-season friendlies and didn\u2019t expect the result from the Arsenal game.<\/p>\n
“They are a top team with a top coach but I\u2019m not here to praise Manchester City, I\u2019m here to compete with them at the weekend.”<\/p>\n
PLAYERS TO WATCH<\/strong><\/p>\nManchester City \u2013 Erling Haaland<\/strong><\/p>\nErling Haaland has scored 22 goals in 14 Premier League appearances in the month of August.<\/p>\n
Indeed, of all players to score 10+ goals in a particular month in the competition, Haaland\u2019s average of 54 minutes-per-goal in August is the best.<\/p>\n
Bournemouth \u2013 Rayan<\/strong><\/p>\nJunior Kroupi is set to miss the start of the season with injury, though Rayan could step up for the Cherries.<\/p>\n
Last season, through Kroupi (October) and Rayan (April-May), Bournemouth became the first team in Premier League history to have two different teenagers score in three consecutive games in the same season.<\/p>\n
MATCH PREDICTION \u2013 MANCHESTER CITY WIN<\/strong><\/p>\nCity have won all nine of their Premier League home games against Bournemouth by an aggregate score of 34-6.<\/p>\n
The Citizens have netted 3.8 goals per game when hosting the Cherries in the competition; their highest average against any opponent on home soil.<\/p>\n
City have also won their opening game in 14 of the last 15 Premier League seasons, the exception a 1-0 defeat to Tottenham in 2021-22. It’s four more wins on MD1 than any other side has had since 2011-12.<\/p>\n
Bournemouth have won their opening game in just two out of nine Premier League campaigns (D3 L4), beating Cardiff City in 2018-19 and Aston Villa in 2022-23.<\/p>\n
However, Bournemouth lost none of their final 18 Premier League games of 2025-26 under Andoni Iraola (W8 D10), the longest current unbeaten run in the division.<\/p>\n
It means that Rose is only the second manager whose first Premier League game at a club comes with them on an ongoing 10+ match unbeaten run in the competition, after Felipe Scolari at Chelsea in 2008 (21 unbeaten beforehand).<\/p>\n
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY<\/strong><\/p>\nManchester City \u2013 63.3%<\/p>\n
Draw \u2013 19.8%<\/p>\n
Bournemouth \u2013 16.9%<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Read More<\/a>SoccerNews Editorial Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Soccer Enzo Maresca viewed Manchester City’s Community Shield defeat to Arsenal as a good opportunity to learn more about his side. City lost 3-0 to the Gunners last Sunday, with Riccardo Calafiori, Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard on target for the Premier League champions. Since the start of 2025, City have only trailed by 3+ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":928563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133007,2005,1498],"tags":[133006,13290],"class_list":["post-928562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-maresca","category-soccer","category-views","tag-maresca","tag-views"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/928563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}