Man City v Bournemouth Tips

Both teams start the new season with a new manager. This will be Maresca's third time at City, but his first as manager. He inherits a squad full of talented players. Last season City finished runners-up behind Arsenal, and they will be looking to make a winning start to the new campaign.

I feel this could be a slight banana skin for City playing Bournemouth in their first game of the season. These two teams drew towards the end of the season, and City have shown over previous seasons that they start slowly into seasons and don't always get off to the best starts. From this, I predict a draw in this match.

City looked shaky and poor under their new manager in the Community Shield and showed very little of the class they used to have. Bournemouth are the Peter Pan of the Prem. Every time they sell their best players, they return with new stars plucked from the sky.

City just beat the K League All Stars 3-1 with all three of their goals coming before half time. Bournemouth have also been getting plenty of goals in their warm up games, so I see this turning into a game with a few chances rather than something slow.

Bournemouth are coming off a really strong end to last season and they held City to a draw when they met in May. They've got enough going forward to score one, but City at home should still create loads themselves.

That 3-1 game at the Etihad is pretty much the type of result I can see again. Bournemouth can hurt City and showed that late last season, but City's home quality still makes me back them having the final say.