Lucas already eyeing positive start

Lucas Moura is relishing the prospect of facing champions Manchester City on the opening weekend of the 2021/22 Premier League season.

As we learned last week following the announcement of the fixtures for the new term, we'll meet City on Sunday 15 August (4.30pm) for the first time on the first weekend of a season since a familiar face, goalkeeper Joe Hart, kept us at bay in a goalless draw at the start of 2010/11.

City clinched their fifth Premier League title - and fourth in the last five seasons - in 2020/21. We beat Pep Guardiola's men in our last meeting at home on 21 November. From there, City won 16 of their next 18 games, including 14 wins on the trot, to move 14 points clear. They also beat us in the Carabao Cup Final and reached the final of the Champions League where they lost to Chelsea.

"This game has to be a big motivation for us," said Lucas, speaking to us during his summer break. "First of all, we need a good pre-season and to have in our minds a positive start to the season and if we do well against the champions, that can only give us confidence. It's always important to try to pick up points from the beginning of the season."

After over a year of playing in front of an empty stadium due to the coronavirus pandemic - barring two matches with 4,000 fans in December - we welcomed back 10,000 fans for our final home match of last season against Villa in May.

Lucas is looking forward to - hopefully - having fans back in the stadium again next season, obviously subject to Government confirmation of Step 4 protocols.

"I can't wait!" said the Brazilian speedster, who racked up another 50 appearances for us last season. "Football without fans is nothing. I'm just happy we are going in the right direction back to normality again."