Man City vs Huddersfield possible line up

The champions were ruthless in 7–0 and 9–0 wins over Rotherham United and Burton Albion respectively, and some Huddersfield fans may be fearful of a similar drubbing given that they look so certain to be joining those teams in the realms of the lower leagues sooner rather than later.

Worryingly for the Terriers, City’s record victory actually came in this fixture, and they hit Wagner’s side for six earlier in the campaign.

Pep Guardiola will be wary of allowing complacency to creep in following the blip around Christmas, though, and his side produced a thoroughly professional showing en route to a 3–0 triumph over 10-man Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday night.

Those three goals took City up to 99 across all competitions this season — comfortably more than any other team in Europe’s top five leagues — and 19 of those have come in their last three outings, one more than Huddersfield have managed in their last 36.

It is not just in attack that Man City boast an impressive record, though, with clean sheets in their last three games and a joint-league-low seven goals conceded away from home so far this season.

Sunday’s match will be their first away from home since the turn of the year, and Huddersfield may find a glimmer of hope in the fact that the champions only won one of their final four away games of 2018, not including penalty shootouts.

The expectation will be for Guardiola’s side to run riot once again, though, and doing so would shift the pressure back on to Liverpool going into the FA Cup fourth round break.

VS

Huddersfield

Things are looking particularly bleak for Huddersfield right now, so the visit of the reigning English champions is exactly what they do not need.

The Terriers prop up the rest in the Premier League table after 22 games, having amassed just 11 points so far to leave themselves already eight points a drift of safety.

It is a position from which no team has ever avoided finishing bottom — yet alone managed to survive — so whoever takes the reins following David Wagner’s departure will have an almighty challenge to turn things around.

Huddersfield are understood to have gone down the same route they used in order to appoint Wagner by making an approach for Borussia Dortmund coach Jan Siewert, while City assistant Mikel Arteta has also been linked with the role.

Wagner’s contribution will not be forgotten in a hurry, having taken Huddersfield into the Premier League and then kept them there against all the odds, but his reign ended with a dreadful run of form.

The Terriers have lost nine and won none of their last 10 outings across all competitions, and only picked up their first Premier League point since November in a goalless draw with Cardiff City last time out.

While that result was enough to end the rotten losing streak, it was not enough to save Wagner’s job and almost every match is a must-win one for Huddersfield now.

That could prove tricky with their next four games coming against Man City, Everton, Chelsea and Arsenal, giving Wagner’s successor a daunting start to life in the dugout.

It is up to caretaker boss Mark Hudson to prepare the team for the visit of the champions, but his first match in charge could see Huddersfield fall to five successive home top-flight defeats for the first time in their history.

The Terriers have been better away from home than they have in front of their own fans so far this season, picking up a league-low five points and one win on their own turf and failing to win any of their last six.

Improving that home form will be high on the priority list for the next boss, then, and so will be boosting the goal return; Huddersfield have failed to find the back of the net in more than half of their 60 Premier League games since earning promotion and have only scored more than once on one occasion from the last 32.

It would take one of the shocks of the season for that to improve this weekend, and even accounting for the usual boost provided by a managerial change, it looks increasingly as though Huddersfield will be playing Championship football again next season.

Originally published at https://www.couplesdesire.co.