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City tend to slip up against "brownshoe" opponents, and, without being unkind to Bolton, facing the Lancashire club in the middle of December is about as "brownshoe" as it gets.

Bolton do have some good players; Cahill, Gardener, Klasnic, Davies and Matty Taylor but poor form and losing to Wolves last week has Trotters fans calling for Gary Megson's head. No better time for City to go to the Reebok and build on the Chelsea victory.

Wayne Bridge is out for six weeks with a knee injury, just as the defence was beginning to look pretty good. While there are a number of options available to Hughes at left-back, none are ideal, especially as Kevin Davies often takes up dangerous positions that full-backs struggle to counter.

Hughes' options -

1. Barry is strong enough to counter Davies, but that takes the City player out of midfield, an area where the tackles will be flying thick and fast on Saturday. Also, Barry can be somewhat slow which may be an issue depending on who Megson picks on the right.

2. Sylvinho is an unknown, really, and certainly is not the best in the air. Only Hughes and co can know if he is up to the job.

3. Garrido showed signs of maturing into a decent player, but the Spaniard has not played a meaningful game for months.

4. Lescott is an excellent choice, having played at left-back with success at Everton. I am loathe to split up Lescott and Toure, but this may be the best bet.

Other issues that may dictate team selection on Saturday are the availability of Ireland, Petrov, Weiss and Bellamy, especially the last two with their swine-flu concerns, but all should be fit to play. SWP has recovered and Micah is okay.

As for tactics, If City can play with the same intensity they showed against Chelsea then a positive result should come, but Bolton will put more men behind the ball and rely on set-pieces for their goal-threat. The following points make interesting reading -

Man City have failed to score in their last four Premier League trips to the Reebok Stadium.

Emmanuel Adebayor has failed to score in seven Premier League games against Bolton.

Bolton are the only team in the top flight not to keep a clean sheet this season.

Six of Johan Elmander's Bolton Premier League goals have been scored in November and December, his favourite time of the year.

Man City have only kept one clean sheet in their last 11 Premier League matches.

Bolton are the only team who have not scored a goal from outside the box.

Man City have conceded the joint-fewest goals from outside the box, one.

City are the only team who have not won a penalty in the Premier League this season.

The Trotters have only won one of their last 10 Premier League home matches.

77 per cent of Bolton's goals have been scored from set plays, the highest percentage in the top division.

Bolton have the worst home record in the division this season, five points from seven games.
(Stats courtesy of Opta)

In which case Adebayor will score from a penalty, Elmander will score a screamer from outside the box and Bolton will record a rare home victory!

Anyway, my team for Saturday -

--------------------Given---------------------
Richards/Zaba----Toure------Onuoha-----Lescott
-------------------DeJong-------------------
-------Ireland-----------------Barry---------
SWP------------------------------------Tevez
-----------------Adebayor---------------------

BENCH Taylor, Sylvinho,Kompany,Zaba,Robi,Petrov, RSC

Micah is showing good form and his height will be useful. Onuoha is in central defence, Lescott at left-back. DeJong is picked for his ability to rattle the Bolton midfield and pick up the likes of Tamir Cohen and Matty Taylor, but I would like to see Kompany get some game time at some point. Robbie misses out - I prefer Tevez on the left for this kind of fixture, but if we need something special or if we are cruising, then the Brazilian's introduction might be useful. I'm assuming that 'flu rules out Bellamy and Weiss.

BLOOVIC