It’s been 35 days since a fixture took place at Ashton Gate with the visit of a familiar Championship adversary in Stoke City ending that wait.
Although people are often quick to pinpoint the Robins’ bogey teams, City have actually been that for the Potters in recent times; they’ve lost just two of their last nine encounters, dating back to 2017 when Stoke dropped back into the second tier.
With confidence in the camp high after last weekend’s 3-1 win at Rotherham United which wasn’t a perfect performance by any stretch but City very much got the job done, and there’s not been too many games where you can say that.
Pearson’s side have almost certainly had to play exceptionally well and flawlessly to get any points, but there’s something to be said for not being at your very best and still emerging with an impressive result.
Alex Neil’s Stoke will present different challenges to the Millers and the opposing manager has already experienced success at Ashton Gate this season having led Sunderland to a 3-2 win in August.
Here’s how we expect City to line up…
Goalkeeper and defence
There’s a simple and slightly more complicated part to this area of the pitch so we’ll deal with the former first and that’s Max O’Leary starting in goal. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves or provide any kind of commentators' curse on the 26-year-old but he’s looking increasingly assured as City’s No1 and, unlike last season where there was almost constant lingering doubt over his suitability match to match, he’s quietly and efficiently gone about his business.
The back three selection could well be a continuation from Rotherham with George Tanner, Andy King and Kal Naismith all having good games and deserve to keep their places. City’s defensive work in Yorkshire was conducted with the absence of one of their mainstays this season back there in Zak Vyner, who was ill along with Jay Dasilva.
Vyner is fit again and Pearson must be tempted to bring the 24-year-old back into the line-up. However, exactly who for is a difficult one because all three justify inclusion today. Naismith looks set on the left, with Rob Atkinson having to wait for his chance again, so it’ll be either in the middle or on the right.
It increasingly looks like the Andi Weimann decision could influence this process because if the Austrian isn’t fit to start, then that leaves the right wing-back berth vacant.
Pearson could therefore shift Tanner into that role, ahead of Mark Sykes, and Vyner comes in on the right with King keeping his position in the centre. Stoke are traditionally a big, physical set-piece focused team, but their forward players against Cardiff - Liam Delap, Will Smallbone, Tariq Fosu-Henry, Tyrese Campbell - don’t quite subscribe to such a theory, so aren’t in danger of exploiting that particular potential weakness.
If Weimann does make it, which will explore a little further down, then the likelihood is Tanner will remain in the back three and Vyner take his place on the bench.
Midfield
We’ll quickly switch to the left-hand side where Cam Pring is likely to remain despite Dasilva’s availability again. He deserves another game in his preferred position and Pearson will want to see him build on his goalscoring turn against the Millers and offer a little more in attack on home soil.
Just as a slight side-point the concept of Tanner and Pring as wing-backs is a little on the defensive side potentially, in a game where City could see a fair bit of the ball (Stoke average 46.8 per cent possession on the road). That aspect could also come into Pearson’s thinking but, again, Weimann’s status is key.
Having pretty much cleared him to play on Wednesday, Pearson dialled that back 24 hours later and the decision was going to be made on Friday with the cold weather not exactly helping the ease at which players could train and be assessed, even with the stellar work of the groundstaff at the High Performance Centre to get it in good shape.
Historically, the Austrian has tended to play when he’s had a slight doubt hanging over his status, he is a very durable player. But with issues on international duty and the injury sustained at Rotherham, you just wonder if he’ll be treated with a little more caution based on the volume of fixtures on the horizon.
To argue with ourselves further, though, he is such an integral player to how Pearson wants to play - on both sides of the ball - so even if he's been limited in training this week, if he can start - he will.
The middle of the park, by contrast, pretty much selects itself with Matty James, Joe Williams and Alex Scott starting. It gives City a real solid base and structure, moves Scott into a freer role where he can create and Williams has showed he can be a penalty box presence with his goal last weekend.
In an ideal world, City would have those three on the field every week but, obviously, considerations elsewhere - predominantly getting Weimann in a central attacking role - sometimes don’t render that possible.
Attack
Like the central midfield three, it’s a straightforward one with Tommy Conway and Nahki Wells continuing their partnership, which continues to flourish.
Their pace will be especially important against a Stoke backline that isn’t overly quick and with Neil noting on Friday that they need to drastically improve their defending in transition, something that will be music to Wells and Conway’s ears.
City are very strong in reserve as well with Antoine Semenyo, Chris Martin and Sam Bell all on the bench. Semenyo’s role is very interesting, of course, with January approaching because if the club - as seems to be increasingly the case - are open to a sale, he could do with a few more minutes and goals before the window opens just to provide a timely reminder of how good a player he is, and keep that price-tag high.
But with Conway and Wells in such good form, it’s hard to see how he battles his way into the starting XI at this stage.
Bristol City (3-5-2, probable): Max O’Leary; George Tanner, Andy King, Kal Naismith; Andi Weimann, Matty James, Joe Williams, Alex Scott, Cam Pring; Tommy Conway, Nahki Wells
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