IT'S the return of the English Premier League on Friday night when all-conquering Manchester City start the defence of their title with a visit to runaway Championship winners Burnley.
Pep Guardiola's men were simply untouchable last season and they eventually romped to title glory and added in the FA Cup with a win against Manchester United and beat Inter Milan in the Champions League Final to finally clinch their holy grail.
City have now won the Premier League five times in the last six years and you can be certain Guardiola will show his usual trademark obsession with winning it yet again.
They are up against a Burnley side, who are of course managed by City legend Vincent Kompany, who romped to the league themselves last season by ten points and never looked in any danger.
City's star signings this summer have been Josko Gvardiol from RB Leipzig for £77.6 million and Chelsea's Mateo Kovacic for £30 million. However, the key loss of Ilkay Gundogan to Barcelona could have a major impact.
Burnley have been busy though bringing in nine players this summer – the key ones being England Under 21s hero keeper James Trafford from City for £19 million and Switzerland striker Zeki Amdouni from Basel for £17 million.
How the bookies view it
The layers expect it to be business as usual for City who are a best-priced 3/10 with William Hill.
Burnley can be backed at 19/2 with BetVictor and the draw is 21/4 with bet365.
Recent head to heads
The clubs met in the FA Cup last season and City romped to a 6-0 annihilation.
In fact, City haven't conceded a goal in their last seven meetings and have won the last 11 games. It's been eight years since Burnley won this fixture.
Players to watch
Erling Haaland was completely unstoppable last season for City and ended up scoring 36 league goals in 33 starts. He is odds-on at 8/11 to net in Lancashire on Friday night with bet365.
Zeki Amdouni scored 26 goals last season for Basel and Switzerland, including a double against Romania and their Under 21s at the Finals. He is 5/1 to mark his Burnley debut with a goal.
Anything else catch the eye?
City ended up losing last week's Community Shield on penalties to Arsenal, but that should be discarded despite the Gunners' celebrations with Guardiola never inclined to treat it as anything other than a pre-season friendly.
It should be more of the same for the champions, but playing them on day one of the new season is probably the best possible time for Burnley. City are often sluggish starters.
Burnley beat Benfica in Lisbon in pre-season and have a reasonable chance of staying up this season under Kompany.
They might be able to keep this competitive and are worth backing on the handicaps to avoid an opening day hammering. Back them with a two-goal start at 10/11 with Ladbrokes.
On a similar line of thought, City to win and under 3.5 goals at 23/20 with Coral looks a decent way to back the champions to get off to a winning start without going goal crazy.
This English Premier League match between Burnley and Manchester City will be played on Aug 12, 2023 and kick off at 20:00. Check below for our tipsters best Burnley vs Manchester City prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
