Man City vs. Newcastle Bet Builder Tips: 11/1 punt for Saturday's 8pm Premier League fixture

In the first Premier League Saturday 8pm kick-off of the season, defending champions Manchester City host high-flying Newcastle at The Etihad. To supplement Dean Woodward's full betting preview, we've formed this 11/1 bet builder with Paddy Power.

Sven Botman may have committed less than a quarter of the total fouls that Joelinton - Newcastle's 2022/23 leader in this department - was penalised for, but there's a lot of appeal to the 11/10 Paddy Power and Betfair are offering for The Magpies defender to give one away vs the reigning champions.

He met this line last week in their 5-1 romping of Aston Villa, as well as in the home fixture between this pair last season. Regardless of how the action unfolds at The Etihad, whether Newcastle have great success against the champions or if they falter to a superior side, Botman and the Newcastle defence are in for a busy evening.

Especially since they'll be the ones responsible for keeping Erling Haaland quiet. The Nordic goal machine looks to have picked up where he left off last season, managing a brace in City's cruising 3-0 win at Turf Moor last Friday, and having opportunities to take home the match ball that night.

In that opener, Haaland won his side two free-kicks, just like he did in the fixture on Tyneside last term. And sometimes that's the best outcome for attempting to stop this rampant Pep Guardiola team - no doubt a tactic Eddie Howe will have his men employ when the going gets tough in Manchester.

Like fouls, these upper table clashes expectedly bring about more quality in front of goal. And two players reporting for shots on target duty in this bet builder may not be names you would typically associate in that field: Rodri and Joelinton.

Man City's dependable midfielder got on the scoresheet at Turf Moor and has been available at various backable prices in this market over the past few seasons. One of the 14 occasions where he tested the goalkeeper in the Premier League last term happened to come at St. James' Park. Having only returned two goals last campaign compared to 2021/22's league tally of seven, the Spaniard will have set his sights on improving that number and has already produced 50% of that mark in Lancashire. With Guardiola's evolving tactical tweaks, players like Rodri are allowing themselves the space and opportunities to find unconventional openings and Newcastle's aggressive, front-foot football will afford City plenty of chances.

In Joelinton's case, he's adopted box-to-box responsibilities in this Newcastle team, and while his defensive output is high as a central midfielder, he isn't sacrificing his influence in front of goal either. He forced Emi Martinez to be called into action from a set-piece last Saturday evening, and although he only featured for 22 minutes at The Etihad last season, he also met this line on that day.

As you would think, the Brazilian registered six more shots on target in this competition than Rodri last campaign; letting off at least one shot in 22 of his 32 PL appearances. Both are lynchpins in their respective teams and the expected end-to-end nature of Saturday's battle sets these two up nicely for managing at least one shot on target each.