Preston take on Manchester City on Tuesday night, and everyone knows what a daunting task that is right now.
Yes, City may have lost at Norwich City last weekend. Since then though, Pep Guardiola’s men have played twice, scoring 11 goals and conceding none.
The 3-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk was promising enough, but then Watford turned up at the Etihad Stadium. The Hornets were 5-0 down inside 20 minutes, and ended up losing 8-0 in an absolute thrashing.
Who on earth would want to play City after that showing? Well, sadly, it’s Preston next up for the Premier League champions, with nobody giving North End a chance.
After all, North End have never really been the giantkilling type. Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur have all been to Deepdale in recent years, and whilst some have been given scares, they all beat Preston.
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Taking on one of the finest sides in Europe and arguably the best manager in the world is a tough task for Preston, but North End are in fine form too.
Saturday’s win at Birmingham City means North End are five Championship games unbeaten, with two clean sheets in a row. Alex Neil has his side sitting third in the Championship table, so Guardiola and co would be foolish to take this game lightly.
Changes are expected from City’s win over Watford though, with Claudio Bravo, Angelino, Joao Cancelo and even Raheem Sterling expected to start. Saturday’s hat-trick hero Bernardo Silva isn’t likely to start though, with a place on the bench likely.
Silva – a £43million signing from Monaco in 2017 – isn’t looking past North End though, and has revealed that he’s actually been looking at Prestons’ results this season.
Silva has told the Manchester Evening News that North End are ‘doing well’, and having lost to Wigan in the past when they were in League One, is urging his side to take tomorrow’s game seriously.
“We want to win, but we are away to a team that – I have checked – are doing well this season,” said Silva. “People sometimes think games against Championship teams are easy, but they’re not. In the last two seasons I have played for City, some of the most difficult games we have had were against teams from the Championship, and in our first season we were knocked out of the FA Cup by Wigan from League One.” he added.