Man City V Hull Barclays Premier League Match 31 -August 2013

Man City V Hull Barclays Premier League Match 31 -August 2013.Manchester City defender Matija Nastasic has recovered from an ankle injury and is set to replace Javi Garcia at centre-back.

Spanish forward Alvaro Negredo is in contention to start after his goal against Cardiff City.
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Hull City are without Yannick Sagbo after his red card against Norwich with Danny Graham set to replace him.

New midfield duo Tom Huddlestone and Jake Livermore should partner each other in the middle of the park.
MATCH PREVIEW

These clubs were two cities with differing tales to tell last weekend, although both with common themes of discipline and organisation.

Manchester City may have lacked them only twice on Sunday, but both times led to Cardiff goals from corners which ultimately won them the match.

After their opening game mauling of Newcastle, it was also a reminder that with a new boss comes new methods and ideas that will take time to get used to.

Roberto Mancini liked his dead ball marking to be of the zonal variety, whereas Manuel Pellegrini prefers his defenders to stick to a man each. Fraizer Campbell must have been missed off the checklist.
LAWRO'S PREDICTION
Image of Mark Lawrenson Mark Lawrenson Football analyst

"We were all surprised that City conceded in the manner they did against Cardiff - I know they are short of a central defender, but unfortunately goalkeeper Joe Hart seems to be making a mistake every week. Hull have shown there is nothing wrong with their spirit and willingness to fight for each other. When you go somewhere like Manchester City, you also have to possess quality and at the moment they don't have that."

Read Lawro's full prediction and score

Yannick Sagbo won't need to be on it for this game after his discipline failure and red card for Hull against Norwich, but that was the only negative for Steve Bruce as his team got their first points on the board.

Their promotion last season was built around defensive organisation, and that was in evidence again in holding out with 10 men for over an hour to win.

I saw enough in Hull's second-half performance at Chelsea a fortnight ago to suggest that they'll have a fighting chance of Premier League survival, but the vast majority of points they get will be earned at home and there are doubts over their goal-scoring capabilities.

Of the Tigers' current strikers, only Danny Graham has scored at the top level in England - but even then only briefly, and not in his last 18 games.

The visitors' best bet on Saturday may be to follow Cardiff's example and test out that set-piece marking again.

You'll notice I've left out any mention of the under-fire Joe Hart, so let me just quote Peter Schmeichel from Monday's MOTD2. "Joe Hart is a fantastic goalkeeper…I think he's being criticised too much". He'll do for me.
MATCH FACTS

Head-to-head

Manchester City and Hull City have met four times in the Premier League - each club has one win apiece, with two draws.
Hull have only won away at Manchester City once in 11 games across all competitions. That was a 2-1 win at Maine Road in the fifth round of the FA Cup - in 1930.
The biggest victory either club has achieved over the other was a 5-1 win by Manchester City in the Premier League on Boxing Day in 2008.

Manchester City

City conceded twice from corners in their loss at Cardiff. They only conceded six times from corners throughout the whole of last season.
Losing to Cardiff was the first time City have lost a league game before December since 2010.
Manchester City only lost one game from a leading position last season (Tottenham away).
Twenty of Edin Dzeko's 31 Premier League goals have come away from home.

Hull City

Last weekend against Norwich, Yannick Sagbo received Hull's fastest-ever Premier League red card.
They have now received five red cards in their last 15 Premier League games.
The victory over Norwich was Hull's first win in nine top-flight matches (since a 2-0 home win against Fulham in March 2010).
Robbie Brady scored the first goal for Hull at the KC Stadium in the Premier League since Kevin Kilbane (in their 4-1 home defeat against Burnley in April 2010).