The first Monday night of the new Premier League season will feature a meeting between West Bromwich Albion FC and Manchester City FC at The Hawthorns in West Bromwich on August 10. It will be the lone match of the day and it should be noted that in the last five seasons, the eventual champions of the league played on the first Monday night of the season.
West Brom most recent game was way back in May, a 1-4 defeat in the hands of Arsenal FC for their final match of the previous season, via Goal. The Baggies had been pretty much silent the whole offseason after finishing 2014-2015 at the no. 13 spot in the overall standings.
Meanwhile, the Citizens had been busy all summer long. The team made one of its most notable and most expensive acquisitions this offseason when it signed 20-year-old winger Raheem Sterling from Liverpool for £49 million, which is reportedly the seventh most expensive transfer of all time.
However, Sterling has not experienced a win yet with his new squad as City dropped its last three preseason games with him around, the last one a 2-4 loss against Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart at the Mercedes-Benz Arena last week, as per Bleacher Report.
It would be interesting to see him respond to his first league game with his new team, though, and how manager Manuel Pellegrini will maximize the boy's potential.
The predicted result is a 3-0 rout for Manchester City. West Brom is struggling as of late and there are only a few things they could do to stop the rampaging Sky Blues.
West Brom starting lineup (4-3-3 formation): Myhill; Lescott, Olsson, McAuley, Dawson; Morrison, Yacob, Fletcher; Brunt, Berahino, McManaman
Manchester City starting lineup (4-2-3-1 formation): Hart; Kolarov, Mangala, Kompany, Sagna; Nasri, Evans; Sterling, Silva, Navas; Bony