(Football news) Pep Guardiola’s men are on a rare run of just one win in four, and have surrendered top spot domestically over the weekend.

Life without Rodri for Manchester City began by drawing 1-1 at Newcastle United on Saturday, as Anthony Gordon’s second-half penalty cancelled out Josko Gvardiol’s opener.

That means that City’s only win in their last four matches came against second-tier Watford in the EFL Cup last midweek, as Guardiola’s men needed a very late goal to draw with Arsenal, and were also held by Inter Milan on matchday one of the Champions League.

Liverpool’s win later on Saturday means Manchester City have dropped to second in the Premier League, but there should be no cause for concern as they have still only lost once in 90 minutes since December.

Manchester City enter this fixture as huge favourites, and could equal a European Cup/Champions League unbeaten record here if they avoid defeat once more, matching Manchester United’s run of 25 games without losing, set between 2007 and 2009.

After being held at home to Inter in their league phase opener, this should be the chance for Manchester City to get their campaign up and running, as the 2023 winners look to wrestle back the trophy from Real Madrid.

This fixture could well see the biggest disparity in finances between two clubs across the entire league phase, especially when it comes down to the cost of assembling each squad, and the overall value.

Value of Slovan Bratislava’s team at just £24m, whereas Manchester City are valued at £1.04bn, suggesting that the hosts have very little chance of ending their current five-game losing streak against English clubs.

A 5-1 defeat at Celtic to get their debut Champions League campaign underway was a huge reality check for manager Vladimir Weiss two weeks ago, and they could not have been handed a tougher challenge to respond to that.

Slovan have at least shown form domestically, winning all three of their matches since the thrashing in Glasgow, scoring 12 goals in the process.

Weiss’s side sit top of the Slovakian top flight, but the European stage will provide a much sterner test, even if they have won all four of their home matches on the continent so far this season.

Ultimately, if they are to become the first Slovakian club to make it through to the Champions League knockouts, that will not be decided here, or on their trips to Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid, as Weiss is likely to highlight games against Girona, Dinamo Zagreb and Stuttgart to get their estimated nine points required to make it through.

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