Manchester City vs Coventry City preview: six from six against none from six

Manchester City host Coventry City on Saturday, 5 September (3pm BST kick-off), with the Premier League's early pacesetters meeting one of the division's most troubled starters.

Two rounds into the season, the Premier League table frames the gap bluntly: City sit first with six points from a possible six, while Coventry sit 17th with none from the same number of matches.

City's perfect opening

According to the Premier League table, only City and Hull City have taken six points from six, and it is City who lead the way on goal difference. Theirs is also the division's most prolific start: six goals scored, two conceded, a +4 return and a W,W form line. No team in the league has found the net more often.

That is three goals a game brought to bear on opponents who have yet to keep a clean sheet, Coventry having conceded four times in their two matches.

Coventry's blank start

Coventry's form line reads L,L — two matches, two defeats, no points and, most pressing of all, no goals. The table shows that of the sides to have played twice, only Coventry and Tottenham Hotspur are still waiting for a first goal of the campaign, and only Crystal Palace and Tottenham have a worse goal difference than the visitors' -4.

Conceding twice a game is burden enough; scoring none makes it decisive. Two matches in, Coventry have nothing to show for their football.

Where the game could turn

• The contrast in attack: City's six goals is the division's best total; no side has scored fewer than Coventry's zero.
• The first goal: the moment Coventry score for the first time this season, the psychology of their start changes. Until then, every lapse at the back costs twice.
• The perfect record: only City and Hull have won both of their opening matches. A third straight win would keep that record intact, whatever happens elsewhere.

Odds and prediction

FanTribe's fixture data carried no bookmaker odds for this match at the time of writing, and no model prediction was available, so the form guide is the only guide. On that evidence, the home side are overwhelming favourites: the league's top scorers, averaging three goals a game, against a side that has yet to score at all.

Early-season tables deserve their caveats. Two matches is a small sample, and Coventry's numbers describe a hard start rather than a doomed season. But until they find a goal, the burden of proof rests with the visitors, and the Premier League table offers no shelter: a trip to the league leaders is as hard as the fixture list gets.

The form book points one way. The first goal, at whichever end it arrives, will tell us whether Saturday follows it.