Premier League preview: Manchester City v Swansea

Sergio Aguero

Sergio Agüero’s introduction into English football was a memorable one for a Welsh club in particular.

The Argentinian ace climbed off the bench after 59 minutes of Manchester City’s opening match of the 2011/12 season, and 31 minutes later he’d scored two goals and set up another one for David Silva to leave Swansea in a spin on their Premier League debut.

The 4-0 win was the perfect start to a season which would end in such dramatic fashion thanks to Agüero’s last kick of it, and how City could do with some of that sparkle in Europe following Wednesday night’s Champions League disappointment in Amsterdam.

Roberto Mancini blamed himself for the 3-1 loss to Ajax which appears to have put City on the verge of a second successive group stage exit from European football’s premier competition, with the players apparently struggling to comprehend the intricacies of the Italian’s new three at the back formation which at times exposes Joe Hart to more shots on his goal during one game than he would have faced during certain months of the last campaign.

City have won their last three Premier League games though, and although two of those victories came courtesy of late Edin Džeko goals, it will be Agüero who Swansea are keeping their eyes on at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday evening.

The knee injury sustained in the opening game of the season at home to Southampton in August slowed down Agüero’s attempts to start this campaign in the same spectacular manner he ended the last one, but he has now featured in City’s last four matches and will be looking to make Swansea pay again on Saturday evening.

The Swans of course recovered from that opening day loss to comfortably stay in the Premier League last season, even beating City in the reverse fixture along the way in a result which seriously threatened Mancini’s title ambitions.

A lot has changed in South Wales since then of course – not least the manager – but Swansea’s 2-1 victory over Wigan last weekend did reverse a worrying run of form which had seen the Swans winless in their last five league games.

Michael Laudrup is still getting his feet under the table at the Liberty Stadium, and the Dane will know full well that it is not matches such as this one away to the reigning champions that he should be judged on, but with players such as the exciting Michu, the rejuvenated Wayne Routledge and the quietly effective Jonathan de Guzman at his disposal then there is no doubt that they are capable of giving City a fright ahead of Halloween week.

Korean midfielder Ki Sung-Yueng has already spoken of the boost that he believes the travelling Swansea fans can deliver for his side in Manchester, and although that is all well and good Laudrup will be forgiven for hoping that he can drag all of them onto the pitch in a bid to stop Agüero, Carlos Tévez and company (including Vincent Kompany).

Mancini will have laid down the low to his players after that Ajax embarrassment, and you can expect City to roar out of the traps as they look to take advantage of the fact that either one or both of Chelsea and Manchester United will drop points at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon.

If it’s Chelsea, then City could be just one point off the top of the table at the end of the weekend, whilst if it’s United they’ll have opened up a healthy three-point gap over their rivals.

Either development would depend on Mancini’s side beating Swansea of course, and even if Agüero doesn’t repeat the feat of 14 months ago, there is still more than enough quality throughout the squad to do that.

Prediction: Manchester City 3 Swansea 0

Mark Jones – follow me on Twitter

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