Bolton Wanderers vs. Manchester City: Cahill vs. Aguero and 4 Other Key Matchups

Bolton Wanderers play host to Manchester City in less than 24 hours and with it comes a lot of speculation. Both clubs completed 4-0 beatings of freshly promoted teams last weekend, and they started the year off at the top of the table for the first time in years.

Transfer speculation with Arsenal is also swirling around both teams as Manchester City are in the final stages of signing Samir Nasri, while the Gunners are still hopeful of bringing Gary Cahill to the Emirates before the next 10 days have passed them by.

However, there is a match to be played today and the bragging rights at the top of the table are at stake as whichever side wins will remain on top of the pile for at least 24 hours before Manchester United plays Tottenham on Monday.

With that said, there are some key one-on-one matchups that are likely to be seen throughout the game and could play heavy parts in the outcome.

That said, here are five pairings that could see some great action and importance this coming afternoon.

Bolton Wanderers right back Zat Knight may be friends with Manchester City's Shaun Wright-Phillips, but that will have no barring on the importance of his battle with Adam Johnson on Sunday afternoon.

Johnson had some great cutting runs against Swansea, and he will have to be held from making those same runs as the Trotters do not need him to cause chances for Edin Dzeko to just tap into goal.

Knight will have to be on the top of his game as Johnson and James Milner will likely both be seen on that side of the pitch at some point.

Yaya Toure is a beast for the Blues in the middle and is one of the best central midfielders in the game.

The man that will most likely be charged with policing him will be Manchester City reject Martin Petrov.

Petrov was moved out two seasons ago as the Citizens truly started to splash the cash, and the player will hope to keep his counterpart in check throughout the night.

Bolton's captain and leading striker is one of the strongest and most physical in the league. His experience most likely will beget experience from Manchester City and Joleon Lescott is the most seasoned EPL defender amongst their center-half ranks.

Davies will be a handful even at 34 years of age, and his 10 goals last season and his combined 21 the two seasons before that make the late bloomer a key threat to City's goal.

The Wanderers continue to miss the service of Stuart Holden for Davies, but it will still prove a key matchup even without the extra midfield boost to Davies.

Fabrice Muamba continues to improve for Bolton season after season, and the 23-year-old is known for showing experience and skill beyond his years.

Those qualities will have to come out as he will most likely be faced with locking down David Silva in the Manchester City attack as the Spanish maestro will hope to architect as much as possible for Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko as the head of the Citizens attack.

Muamba will also have to be ready on the counter, as the weaker Bolton side (at least on paper) may have to resort to several counter-attacking tactics in order to achieve a draw or even victory in the match.

So much hype has surrounded Gary Cahill throughout all of this year since his major move speculation started in January. With so much debate over the player's value and ability, he will have a true chance of showing what he is made of when the match against City kicks off.

He will be tasked with dealing with Sergio Aguero for a full 90 minutes, and that could be a tall order after watching what the young Argentinian could do in only 30.

However, Cahill is also an attacking threat, as he scored a great goal at the weekend against QPR, and both players will be hoping to be key to their team's attack.

Cahill will prove he is worthy of the praise, but the rest cannot be said about the rest of the Wanderers defense.

Bolton will test the will of Manchester City more than people might think, but the Sky Blues are simply too strong as they win 3-1 at the Reebok. I would love to be proven wrong, however.

You can see the full list of weekend match predictions in the weekly EPL Match Preview Article that comes out each Thursday right here on Bleacher Report.

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