Huddersfield Town v Manchester City: Premier League – live!

22 min City work a short corner to Fernandinho, whose shot is deflected behind for another corner. This one is curled straigt to the near post, where the unmarked Fernandinho heads wide. That was a good chance. He was in plenty of space because Otamendi blocked his marker off the ball.

20 min That was City’s 100th goal of the season in all competitions. They’ve come a long way since the days of playing David James up front.

And that’s Blockbusters. Walker plays a long square pass to Danilo, who moves the ball onto his right foot and hits a stinging long-range shot that deflects in off the head of Schindler and wrongfoots Lossl. I think that’s an own-goal as it seemed to be going just wide off the near post before the intervention of Schindler’s noggin.

17 min “If City have all the ball,” writes Adrian Riley, “how come your match stats say possession is 50-50? And did Kachunga really try a header from his own cross?”

1) They are wrong.

2) Yes.

14 min With some penalty appeals, you can understand why the referee gets it wrong – his view might be obscured, or it might look at first glance that the ball was taken. In this case, I have no idea what Andre Marriner saw, as it was a clear foul.

13 min De Bruyne slides a majestic pass through to Sterling, who is taken out in the area by Kongolo. It’s a clear penalty – yet Andre Marriner waves play on. Sterling is livid, rightly so.

12 min Nothing much to report. City are having all of the ball but they haven’t yet been at their sharpest.

8 min A half chance for

Kachunga
Diakhaby, who mistimes a header from Kachunga’s flat cross and shoulders the ball well wide. City were a little lackadaisacal in the defence there.

7 min Huddersfield have shown good intent on the break, if not yet the necessary quality. They are getting the ball straight out to the wide players so that they can try to take the shortest route to goal.

5 min It’s all City. They have had 85 per cent of the possesion, which gives them about 77 per cent of the law.

3 min An early half-chance for Aguero. He moves into the area onto a return pass from Sterling and goes past Hogg before losing his balance and slicing wide of the near post.

1 min A poor ball from Fernandinho goes straight to Kachunga, who tries to run Laporte and falls over. Huddersfield thought there was a foul; the referee Andre Marriner did not.

1 min Peep peep! Huddersfield kick off from right to left. They are in blue-and-white stripes; City are in purple.

An email! “It would be churlish indeed,” writes Dexter Stern, “to chide you for forgetting a City 6-1 spanking, Rob.”

You call 6-1 a pasting? By City’s recent standards that’s an even contest.

Yes, yes, I am a buffoon, for I totally forgot Manchester City 6-1 Huddersfield earlier this season. Ach. In my defence, I didn’t cover that game. I can’t be bloody expected to remember everything!

Oh.

This is the best thing I’ve read so far this year. Treat yourself, it’s Sunday.

Huddersfield are one of the few teams who haven’t taken a pasting from Pep Guardiola’s City. Last season they lost 2-1 at home, having taken the lead, and drew 0-0 at the Etihad Stadium.

Some more pre-match reading

Pre-match reading

If you want a job done properly, get Paul Doyle to do it

Huddersfield (4-2-3-1) Lossl; Smith, Schindler, Kongolo, Lowe; Bacuna, Hogg, Kachunga, Puncheon, Mpenza; Diakhaby.
Substitutes: Hamer, Zanka, Durm, Pritchard, Hadergjonaj, Depoitre, Mounie.

Manchester City (2-3-2-3) Ederson; Otamendi, Laporte; Walker, Fernandinho, Danilo; De Bruyne, Gundogan; Sterling, Aguero, Sane.
Substitutes: Muric, Stones, Delph, B Silva, D Silva, Jesus, Foden.

Referee Mr Andre Marriner.

Hello, good afternoon and welcome to inclusively live coverage of Huddersfield Town v Manchester City. This match should be one of two things: tomorrow’s chip paper, or next month’s commemorative DVD. If Manchester City win, as expected, nobody will bat an eyelid, the title race will be as you were and Huddersfield will be one game closer to relegation.

That, almost certainly, is what will happen. There was something touching about the dignity and class with which David Wagner’s departure was handled. But because he went on such good terms, there is less likely to be a caretaker-manager bounce.

But if Huddersfield – managerless, bottom of the table, 1/33 to be relegated – do beat or even draw with City, it will have significant repercussions at one and maybe both ends of the table. And, perhaps, on the DVD sales rankings on Amazon.

Kick off is at 1.30pm.