Pep Guardiola will look to continue his 100% start to his time in charge of Manchester City when they take on Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium in Saturday's lunchtime Premier League kickoff.
The hosts opened their campaign with a draw against newly-promoted Middlesbrough, and will be hopeful of springing a surprise this weekend to claim their first win of the season.
Stoke
© Getty Images
When the fixture lists were released, Stoke will have targeted their opening match of the campaign as a good chance to get some early points on the board.
It certainly looked like their best opportunity to do so in the first few weeks, with matches against the likes of Everton and Tottenham Hotspur following this weekend's clash with title favourites Man City.
As it was, though, the Potters were forced to settle for a point against the newly-promoted Middlesbrough, with Xherdan Shaqiri's 67th-minute strike cancelling out Alvaro Negredo's debut opener.
Three consecutive ninth-place finishes would suggest that Stoke will be able to hold their own in the trio of tricky fixtures coming up, but in a season that has seen so much movement in the transfer market - and consequent improvement of many of the teams around them in last season's table - Mark Hughes's side have been worryingly quiet.
The arrival of Joe Allen for £13m from Liverpool has been their one major signing, with Ramadan Sobhi and Ryan Sweeney the only other two new faces to arrive at the Britannia Stadium so far.
Crucially, Hughes has avoided losing any key players - most notably Marko Arnautovic - but their window has not exactly scaled the heights of last season, when the likes of Shaqiri, Giannelli Imbula and Joselu all arrived at the club.
Competition for a top-half finish is expected to be greater this year than ever before, so Stoke may need further reinforcements before the August 31 deadline if they are to keep up their impressive recent record in the top flight.
In Hughes, though, they have a manager who has so far delivered on his promise to evolve the team, and he will welcome one of his former clubs to the Britannia knowing that Guardiola has not come up against a similar test too often in his trophy-laden managerial career.
Recent form: D
Man City
© Getty Images
Upon his arrival in England, Guardiola declared that his motivation for leaving Bayern Munich was the desire to test himself in another league and against another style of football.
While Stoke are no longer quite the long-ball bruisers they once were, the fixture list has certainly given Guardiola what he wanted early on with opening matches against Sunderland and the Potters.
Things were not exactly straightforward in their curtain-raiser last weekend, despite Sergio Aguero giving them a lead from the penalty spot after just four minutes.
City utterly dominated possession throughout, as expected, but clear chances were few and far between and Sunderland looked as though they might nick a point when Jermain Defoe levelled things up, only for the hosts to be rescued by an own goal three minutes from time.
Victory at home to the Black Cats via a penalty and an own goal is not exactly the swashbuckling start to Guardiola's reign that many would have expected, but it is still early days in the Spaniard's revolution and the players are sure to improve as they increase their understanding of the manager's philosophy.
There were better signs in midweek as City all but secured their place in the Champions League group stages with a 5-0 away victory over Steaua Bucuresti - a match that saw Aguero miss two penalties in the opening 21 minutes but still go on to score a hat-trick.
The Argentine has now scored 10 goals in his last nine appearances for the club, while his penalty on the opening day took his Premier League tally for 2016 to a league-high 18 goals in just 19 outings.
Whether Aguero maintains his fitness throughout the season could well prove to be a deciding factor in the title race, and City have certainly splashed the cash to ensure that he is surrounded by quality too, spending almost £150m on eight players.
More could still arrive if recent reports are to be believed, with Joe Hart seemingly set to become the most high-profile of casualties from Guardiola's arrival. The England number one has been left out of the first two games of the season amid the club's reported interest in Barcelona's Claudio Bravo.
Yaya Toure is another who has so far not got a look-in under the new manager, but in these very early days the results have made it tough to argue with Guardiola's selection as he goes in search of a seventh league title from his eight years as a coach.
Recent form: W
Recent form (all competitions): WW
Team News
© Getty Images
Hart's days at Manchester City appear to be numbered, and he is once again expected to miss out this weekend in favour of Wilfredo Caballero.
In front of him, the fit-again Nicolas Otamendi is expected to start alongside £47.5m summer arrival John Stones, who has so far made a solid start to his Manchester City career.
Vincent Kompany remains sidelined along with Ilkay Gundogan, while there are lingering doubts over both the fitness and the futures of Toure and Samir Nasri.
Leroy Sane could potentially feature having missed the start of the season with a hamstring problem, but any game time is likely to come off the bench as Raheem Sterling and Nolito are expected to retain their places.
Aguero will lead the line as ever, and will be looking to add to his tally of six goals in six Premier League games against Stoke.
The Potters' main team news also surrounds the goalkeeping situation, with Hart's international understudy Jack Butland fighting to be fit in time for the weekend after an ankle injury kept him out of the season opener.
Arnautovic scored twice the last time Stoke hosted Man City and is expected to start alongside Bojan Krkic and Shaqiri again.
Glen Johnson remains out with a quadriceps injury, while Ibrahim Afellay and Stephen Ireland will not play again until next year.
Stoke possible starting lineup:
Butland; Bardsley, Shawcross, Wollscheid, Pieters; Imbula, Allen, Shaqiri, Bojan, Arnautovic; Diouf
Man City possible starting lineup:
Caballero; Sagna, Stones, Otamendi, Clichy; Fernandinho, Silva, Sterling, De Bruyne, Nolito; Aguero
Head To Head
Stoke have fared quite well against Man City in recent seasons, winning two of their last four meetings having only managed one win in the 14 clashes prior to that.
That includes the corresponding fixture last term as Arnautovic's brace gave Stoke a 2-0 win, although City gained revenge with a 4-0 drubbing at the Etihad in April.
City have only ever won once away to Stoke in the Premier League, though, drawing five times, losing twice and scoring just four goals in the process.
We say: Stoke 0-1 Man City
This will be an interesting test for Guardiola and City, and they will know that an improvement is needed from their opening-day win over Sunderland. Stoke will not make it easy for them, but we are backing City to scrape through once again and continue their perfect start to the season.
Barney Corkhill
