For League Two side Swindon Town, hosting Manchester City will be one of the biggest matches that County Ground has ever seen. And while they’ll be heavily favored to lose the match, with City’s current COVID crisis anything can happen. Manager Pep Guardiola will miss the match but it is unknown how many first-team players will miss the trip.
Here’s are storylines, how you can watch the match and more:
How to watch and odds
- Date: Friday, Jan. 7 | Time: 3 p.m. ET
- Location: County Ground — Swindon, England
- Live stream: ESPN+
Storylines
Due to COVID cases and Riyad Mahrez being away at the Africa Cup of Nations, it is expected that we’ll see a youthful side making the trip to Swindon. If healthy, Cole Palmer and James McAtee are the easiest inclusions to predict as they’ve been getting Premier Leauge minutes under Guardiola. Kayky getting a start would also make sense as he was called into the senior team at the tail-end of the festive fixtures with the lack of depth at striker and his development being best suited while around the first team.
For Swindon, the hope is that a City team that hasn’t played together much will set the stage for a cupset. While Swindon has been in middling form, Harry McKirdy did just score four versus Northampton and they’ll need more of that if they want to take down City.
Prediction
A walk in the park for City as Swindon will be happy to be competitive in the match. Pick: Manchester City 5, Swindon Town 1
