Football Tips

Napoli saw BTTS last time out as they ran out 3-1 winners over Fiorentina to take their early-season form to three wins from three matches. They’ve scored six goals across these games, and that goal they conceded against Fiorentina was the first they’ve let in this season, though I expect that to change here.

Manchester City have scored eight goals across their opening four Premier League matches this season, but have only managed to keep two clean sheets - against two sides that have started the season really poorly in Manchester United and Wolves.

Napoli will test Manchester City’s backline a lot more regularly with the likes of De Bruyne, McTominay, and Hojlund. I’m still not convinced that Manchester City’s backline is rock solid, and I still also anticipate a bit of a bedding-in process for Donnarumma, which could lead to some mistakes at the back for City.

McTominay’s foul won record at the start of this season is off the scale. He’s won 13 fouls across his three Serie A appearances (4.35 per 90), which is unsurprisingly more than any other player in the Italian top flight this term.

As well as boasting this obscene record at the start of the campaign, McTominay also won fouls regularly for Napoli last season. He won 60 fouls across his 34 appearances in Serie A last season (1.84 per 90) and can disrupt the City midfield and backline with his physical nature and clever movement into the box, which helped him to score 12 goals in Serie A last season.

City don’t tend to commit many fouls, but some of the fouls they do commit here should centre around McTominay with the sheer volume of fouls he’s won in the early stages of the season.

Foden was back to his best in the Manchester derby, a game in which he routinely puts his best foot forward. Foden is a player who is capable of being one of the best in the Premier League, but needs to recapture some of the form that guided him to the Premier League player of the year award a few years ago.

I’m confident that the Manchester derby can act as a catalyst for Foden to produce his best form for City. He’s got an opportunity to nail down a starting spot in the side with Rayan Cherki out injured for the next few weeks. This should motivate Foden, who had two shots against United last time out, with one of these attempts ending up in the back of the net.

Foden only scored seven goals in the Premier League last season, averaging 0.81 shots on target per 90 across his 28 appearances in the competition. However, the season prior, Foden scored 19 Premier League goals and had 48 shots on target across his 35 Premier League appearances (1.51 per 90).

Juan Jesus has committed four fouls across his two appearances in Serie A this season (2.28 per 90) with this record resulting in one yellow card for the Brazilian centre back.

Conte is likely to turn to Jesus here as an experienced option. Jesus is 34 so he has been around for quite some time and will be in a tussle with Erling Haaland who enters this game having scored twice against Manchester United last time out.

Jesus committed 14 fouls across his 12 starts in Serie A last season (1.17 per 90), which is a record that can continue here up against the best striker in Europe. Manchester City will look to feed Haaland at every possible opportunity, which should mean a constant succession of duels for Juan Jesus.

I struggle to see many sides stopping Barcelona from scoring at least two goals in the majority of their games this season. Their scoring power is relentless, and they’ve already shown that a few times this season, with their 6-0 win over Valencia last time out being particularly impressive.

Barcelona have scored 2+ goals in three of their four LaLiga matches this season. Only Rayo Vallecano stopped Barcelona from scoring twice in the early stages of this season, and I do think Newcastle will struggle to contain the pressure that this Barcelona frontline puts on opposition backlines.

Barcelona scored 102 goals across their 38 matches in LaLiga last season (2.68 per game). 50 of these goals came across their 19 away matches (2.63 per game), so they are just as proficient on the road as they are when being the home side.

I’m a big fan of Nick Woltemade. He's got the stature of Peter Crouch but somehow has the close control and dribbling ability of Messi.

He's one of the most unique players in Europe, and his debut would suggest that he will be a real threat for Newcastle in the Premier League and Champions League this season.

Woltemade had three shots against Wolves on his debut, with one of these efforts finding the back of the net as he headed home Jacob Murphy’s cross to record his first goal for the Magpies.

Woltemade scored 12 goals across his 17 starts in the Bundesliga last season, so he is perfectly capable of shouldering the goalscoring burden that Isak has left behind after making the move to Liverpool.

He had 49 shots across those starts (2.72 per 90), which is a shot volume that further indicates that he’s got a good chance of getting a few shots away here.

Raphinha was Barcelona’s best player in the Champions League last season but didn’t always get the credit he deserved, with Lamine Yamal often stealing the limelight.

That won’t be the case here with Yamal heavily rumoured to miss this game through injury, leaving Raphinha as Barcelona’s biggest threat from the wide areas.

Raphinha came off the bench to score twice against Valencia last time out, with the Brazilian having four shots in his 45-minute cameo.

He’s had 12 shots across his four appearances in LaLiga this season (3.94 per 90), which is a shot volume that gives him a great chance of finding the target here.

Raphinha scored 13 goals across his 14 appearances in the Champions League last season. He had 51 shots across these games (3.75 per 90) with 21 of these attempts finding the target (1.54 per 90).

Barcelona have averaged 7.80 shots on target per game across their opening four games of the LaLiga season.

Dan Burn has committed five fouls across his four appearances in the Premier League this season (1.25 per 90).

He committed a foul against Wolves last time out and is set to face up against Robert Lewandowski here, who will cause him all sorts of problems.

Lewandowski has played limited minutes so far this season as he recovers from an injury, but he is expected to be fit enough for this game, having scored two goals from the bench against Valencia last time out.

Lewandowski was very good when it came to winning fouls last season. He won 39 fouls across his 34 appearances in LaLiga (1.31 per 90) and also averaged 2.01 fouls won per 90 across his 13 appearances in the Champions League.

Burn doesn’t face up against the quality of Lewandowski every week, and I can envisage him struggling at times with the Polish striker, which should lead to the 33-year-old committing at least one foul in this encounter.