Off to the Etihad for the last game of the year

Back in June, when the fixtures were released, having looked at the opening and closing games, it was the Christmas period I next looked at and realised that we had to face the top two from last season within the space of 48 hours.

Just another football match says Sam Vokes

The first of them was Liverpool on Boxing Day at home, to be followed by this trip to the Etihad. It looked a tough prospect at the time and nothing changed other than Liverpool not being anything like as strong as they were last season.

City most certainly are and we face a side that is in excellent form and were on the cusp of leading the table at Christmas should Stoke have got a result against Chelsea in a televised game last week.

Christmas is not the easiest of times to write a match preview. There is precious little information comes out of clubs and there hasn't been a word from our club since the Liverpool defeat so no sign of any team news or potential injuries.

One player who will be hoping to be involved is Sam Vokes. He came on for the last ten minutes against Liverpool to a rousing reception as he makes his way back from the ruptured anterior cruciate ligament he suffered at the end of March.

After that game, he said about today's trip to Manchester: "We won't be looking at Manchester City and thinking it's a big occasion us going there as it's just another football match.

"These are the games we wanted to be involved in this season and I think we can take confidence from the way we've performed over the last few games."

Speaking about his own return, he added: "I was watching sat on the bench today and couldn't wait to get on and get involved. It's great to be back out there. It's been a long, hard nine months and with that you're always watching these games and finding it tough but now I'm looking to kick on."

I wouldn't expect Vokes to start today. Sean Dyche said after that run out that he wasn't there yet, but it is fantastic to have him back in the squad.

Teams will engage in a bit of rotating today, certainly those with bigger squads. I don't see much if any and, should everyone be fit, then I expect the team might be very similar, if no the same, as the one that played on Boxing Day.

It could be: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Keane, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, George Boyd, Dean Marney, David Jones, Scott Arfield, Danny Ings, Ashley Barnes. Subs from: Matt Gilks, Steven Reid, Kevin Long, Danny Lafferty, Nathaniel Chalobah, Ross Wallace, Michael Kightly, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Marvin Sordell, Sam Vokes.

What can we say about our opponents? They are financially rich beyond belief and a lot of that money has just been used to set up the Etihad Campus. It's cost around £200 million; it has 16 new training pitches, a new stadium for under-21 and youth games. There's even a new tram station in there for spectators to get in and out easily.

I was excited recently about the plans for our training ground at Gawthorpe. They are far reaching and what we need, but what is going on at City is something else. It's taking things to a completely new level.

On the pitch, they are current champions and I saw a stat yesterday that said they have won 23, drawn 2 and lost 2 of their Premier League home games since Manuel Pellegrini became manager.

What an amazing record. Last season they were beaten by Chelsea and then held to a draw by Sunderland. This season they lost their first home game of the season 1-0 to Stoke and then drew the second 1-1 against Chelsea.

Back in early November they were surprisingly held 2-2 by QPR at Loftus Road. Since, they've won nine out of nine in all competitions and that includes the remarkable comeback against Bayern Munich and an away win at Roma in the Champions League.

They've conceded just one goal in their last five games and that came two days ago in the snow at West Brom after they'd already gone 3-0 up in just over half an hour.

Having said all that, how fantastic that we are currently in the same league as them. We'll never be able to compete as a club and it is unlikely that we'll ever go there again knowing that a win would see us crowned champions of England as was the case in 1960.

But, no matter what happens, I'm looking forward to today's game and there's even a little bit of disappointment that I won't be able to see Sergio Aguero, although I suspect our defenders might be quite pleased he's currently out injured.

There could be a return for their influential captain Vincent Kompany and they could return to a more usual system having been forced to play without a recognised striker at West Brom on Boxing Day.

Manager Pellegrini has confirmed the only players who remain injured are Aguero and Edin Dzeko. The changes should see a return for Stevan Jovetic.

There will certainly be changes to the team that beat West Brom when they lined up: Joe Hart, Bacary Sagna, Martin Demichelis, Eliaquim Mangala, Gael Clichy, Fernando, Yaya Touré, Jesus Navas, David Silva, Samir Nasri, James Milner. Subs: Willy Caballero, Pablo Zabaleta, Aleksandar Kolarov, Fernandinho, Frank Lampard, Dedryck Boyata, Stevan Jovetic.

Last Time We Were There

There weren't many highlights away from home in our previous season in the Premier League but the trip to the Etihad provided one of the best. We won only one game on the road that season, at Hull, with the only other point coming in this sensational 3-3 draw against Manchester City.

Kevin McDonald scored the late goal

Incredibly we went 2-0 up with a Graham Alexander penalty and a Steven Fletcher goal and that was with just over half an hour gone, and I still wonder how things might have been had they not pulled one back through Bradley Wright-Phillips just before half time.

We had an amazing ability to concede a lot of away goals at that time, at least three in every game apart from the opener at Stoke when we lost 2-0, so to conceded then was a blow. It got worse too when Kolo Touré and Craig Bellamy turned things round before the hour and we were staring yet another defeat in the face.

But we kept going at City and right at the end we got our reward with Kevin McDonald's only Premier League goal, and right in front of the thousands of Burnley fans there.

You'd have thought we'd won the league, such were the celebrations, but at least we'd got that first point and thought it was a major stepping stone. Unfortunately we went on to lose the next ten away games and by the time that win came at Hull we were close to being relegated.

The teams that day at City were;

Manchester City: Shay Given, Pablo Zabaleta, Kolo Toure, Joleon Lescott, Wayne Bridge, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Stephen Ireland, Gareth Barry, Craig Bellamy, Carlos Tevez (Martin Petrov 73), Emmanuel Adebayor. Subs not used: Stuart Taylor, Micah Richards, Nigel de Jong, Vladimir Weiss, Michael Johnson, Roque Santa Cruz.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Graham Alexander, Andre Bikey (Kevin McDonald 62), Chris Eagles (David Nugent 71), Wade Elliott, Robbie Blake (Joey Gudjonsson 62), Steven Fletcher. Subs not used: Diego Penny, Michael Duff, Fernando Guerrero, Steven Thompson.

Previous Games against Manchester City

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