Premier League Stats
It was only a few games ago when posting this Head-to-Head record I had said that we're about to shift the balance in our favour. Winning all five of our last five Recent Meetings against them in the league (and another in the cup) has well and truly sorted that. Despite such a good recent record against them, whenever this fixture comes around, many of us still think and comment that this is a really hard game ... I guess that comes from them being our bogey team for a long time ...
The Form Guide and Season So Far stats are below just because I have posted them all season so here they are again. These don't include the penultimate gameweek fixtures from this mid-week for either team though. Everton had shown much promise early on this season but have lately fallen away. It's their home form that has dodged them all season and I am not sure why. The only other stat that matters at the end of this season is that We are the Champions ...
Before & After
Like our last game, we play a day earlier than the opposition ... but it's the game after this one that Pep will be focused on and the team selection for this one would be based solely on what he wants to do in that big one. This is the last game of the season for Everton, while we have one more to look forward to after this.
Here are the games then, before (for both) and after (for us):
Everton
Wed 19 - 6:00pm - Wolves (H) - PL
Sun 23 - 4:00pm - City (A) - PL
Manchester City
Tue 18 - 7:00pm - Brighton (A) - PL
Sun 23 - 4:00pm - Everton (H) - P
Sat 29 - 8:00pm - Chelsea (N) - CL Final
Hands on the Trophy ...
... but Minds Elsewhere!
Yup, here we are ... the last league game of the season, the last home game, (some lucky) fans are back and it's the trophy lift day ...
But this all is a sideshow ... all eyes and minds are ahead on the even bigger prize. I know that League is always the top priority for most City fans, but the fact that this is our fifth Premier League trophy in just this past decade alone doesn't help when compared to what's coming next week where we are in our first ever Champions League Final ... and the fact that this is already won, that one ahead just seems a little bit bigger right now.
And that'd also dictate Pep's selection, changes, subs and tactics in this game. Who needs resting will be rested, who needs some minutes will be subbed off at that exact no. of minutes regardless of how the game is going and whoever needs to regain match fitness and sharpness will be played here ... the result won't matter so much so that I even half-expect Pep to experiment with some different formations and try a few different things that he hasn't been able to replicate on the training pitch yet and he could very well try that in a live game.
As for the players ... forget that any of ours would be going for 50/50 challenges, I don't think any of them is even going in for a 80/20 challenge with the fear of being injured just before the big Final ... unless of course its the one playing for a place in that Final and trying to impress Pep, as for those this is the last chance saloon ... On the other side, can't be certain what mood Everton players would be in ... they could very well be in the fight for a Europa League spot in which case they'd want to win the game ... or they could find themselves in that new Europa Conference League spot, in which case they might even try to lose the game instead.
Anyway, when all this practice and warm-up over ninety minutes is done ... we'd go and lift this beautiful shiny thing, which (putting my City bias aside) frankly looks at its best when dressed in White and Sky Blue!
End of an AgüEra!
There is this small matter of a farewell on Sunday as well ... but I don't think a section within the Everton Pre-Match Thread does justice to the club legend that he is ... so I'm going to go and start a separate thread for him after posting this - let's put all our Aguero tributes in there please ...
And those lucky ones in attendance this Sunday, please sing your hearts out on all our behalf!
There is this small matter of a farewell on Sunday as well ... but I don't think a section within the Everton Pre-Match Thread does justice to the club legend that he is ... so I'm going to go and start a separate thread for him after posting this - let's put all our Aguero tributes in there please ...
And those lucky ones in attendance this Sunday, please sing your hearts out on all our behalf!
Match Prediction
And as for this match ... can't seem to shed that Huddersfield game (at the end of Centurions season) out of my head ... maybe it's because that's the only other time we had the league wrapped up before the final day, so there's that similarity ... predicting the same as that game then ...
Manchester City 0 - 0 Everton
And as for this match ... can't seem to shed that Huddersfield game (at the end of Centurions season) out of my head ... maybe it's because that's the only other time we had the league wrapped up before the final day, so there's that similarity ... predicting the same as that game then ...
Manchester City 0 - 0 Everton
End of Pre-Match Threads
Don't worry, I just meant this is the last one for this season ... I know we have another game after this, but that Pre-Match Thread (with the days countdown) is already 100+ pages long, so that'll have to do for that ...
I just wanted to thank all of you here who read, liked and appreciated these pre-match thread starters this season ... and also to those who completely ignored these and went on to ask the questions that had already been answered in the first post anyway :) It's certainly those positive comments and feedback that I received within threads and in private messages that kept me going ... and as things stand, these should continue next season as well. Fingers crossed, if we win the big eared jug next week, the next season will be our busiest ever with seven fronts to battle on ... C'mon City, Up the Blues!