Manchester City and Bournemouth have confirmed their starting lineups for today’s Premier League fixture at the Etihad Stadium. Today’s match is the opening fixture for both teams. Enzo Maresca will take charge of his first Premier League fixture at home for Manchester City and it will take some time to get used to a new figure in the dugout after seeing Pep Guardiola prowl the touchline at the Etihad for a decade.
The Manchester City squad is in the middle of a sizable reconstruction. Bernardo Silva, John Stones, Nathan Ake, James Trafford, Rodri and Tijjani Reijnders have all left the club this summer. Savinho will likely be the next player to leave and Omar Marmoush and Nico Gonzalez could also leave. So far, City have signed Elliot Anderson, Mathys Detourbet, Pierce Charles and Jeremy Monga this summer. Charles and Detourbet have been sent on loan for the 2026-27 season. There is no doubt that City will add more players to complete Enzo Maresca’s squad before the transfer window closes.
In terms of who is available and who isn’t for Enzo Maresca, Jeremy Doku will miss today’s match due to a calf injury. The Belgian international sustained the injury against Arsenal in City’s 3-0 FA Community Shield defeat last weekend and will be sidelined for 2-3 weeks.
Matheus Nunes is available for selection for today’s match against Bournemouth. Manchester City’s first-choice right-back sustained an injury in the warm-up prior to last weekend’s FA Community Shield clash with Arsenal. But he has been passed fit to play today.
Here are both teams lineups for today’s match.
Manchester City
Enzo Maresca has tweaked his midfield for today’s match. Elliot Anderson, Nico O’Reilly, and Rico Lewis will likely start in midfield. Nico O’Reilly offers a great threat going forward and will likely be the number ten in today’s lineup. Phil Foden looks set to start on the right wing today against Bournemouth. Abdukodir Khusanov looks set to play at right-back, with the Uzbekistan international preferred to Matheus Nunes. Khusanov, like his teammates, will want to put in a much better performance than last week against Arsenal.
Nico Gonzalez and Omar Marmoush are on the bench despite doubts over their futures with Manchester City. Savinho isn’t on the bench which isn’t a surprise as his move to Tottenham is nearly complete. There is a strong bench named for Enzo Maresca to call upon which can be seen below.
Starting lineup: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Abdukodir Khusanov, Marc Guehi, Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol, Rico Lewis, Elliot Anderson, Nico O’Reilly, Phil Foden, Antoine Semenyo, Erling Haaland.
Substitutes: Rulli, Marmoush, Kovačić, Cherki, Nico, Grealish, Aït-Nouri, Reis, Nunes.
Bournemouth
🔵 TEAM NEWS🍒
The first #afcb team of the new Premier League season 👊 pic.twitter.com/uJhTI01Jld
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) August 23, 2026
If I could not get in the side ahead of that 2nd rater Lewis I think I would move away. No one could blame Nico and Cherki must feel the same about not getting in ahead of Foden. Under Maresca the rule seems to be the least you contribute the more you are guaranteed a place. Already everyone sat around me looks in despair.
How about now? Foden and Lewis weren’t good enough, no doubt about that, and Maresca saw it and made the necessary changes and we picked up the three points.
Let’s just take the three points, enjoy the win and Cherki and Nunes will be in the starting lineup more often than not. Bouaddi is on his way, Allan to follow, Marmoush is off, and by the end of the week the squad will look a lot better.
It isn’t all bad, the team spirit was great and that builds teams. Plenty of positives to take from today, and plenty of areas to improve. Pep’s era began with a scratchy 2-1 win over Sunderland so plenty more positives to take from today than negatives.
Last week you advocated Cherki ahead of Foden and in the end, with his 2 assists, you were spot on. If you have ever wondered what over 2 thousand people shouting “what” at the same time then you had to be here when they announced Lewis was playing!. A right back is tasked with “policing” the opposition left flank so when the cross came in for Tavernier’s goal Lewis did not even look to the left. It took 57 minutes to correct this. Also we actually looked better when Kovacic replaced Anderson which baffles me.
I think we got out of jail and 3 points in spite of Maresca. At least we have concluded the Bouaddi deal.
I’m firmly in the camp of Cherki is a starter no matter what. Today just further enhanced that view.
Foden was poor, as was Lewis. Foden gave away possession on far too many occasions and besides his lovely back heel early on it just wasn’t his day. Like everyone, I have faith Foden will get there but if we are picking Cherki or Foden to start, it is Cherki every day of the week. Fact could be, Cherki is just a better all-around player than Foden.
Anderson was good until he went down with cramp, in my opinion. I think when the entire team is at full match sharpness we’ll play with more tempo which we did towards the end as we chased a goal and that will help Anderson. Kovacic did really well which was pleasing to see.
Maresca made the changes he needed to and it was good to see. If he’d waited until the 70th minute I’d share your view, but he did well, we start with a win and that is all that matters.