Aberdeen will look to make it two league wins from two when Premiership action returns to Pittodrie against St Mirren on Sunday.
The game was moved to Sunday due to the Buddies’ participation in European qualifying – a feeling Aberdeen and the Red Army know all too well following their Continental adventure at the start of last season.
New Swedish Dons boss Jimmy Thelin got his debut Premiership campaign off to a solid start on Monday night, when his team showed signs of his attacking intentions in beating St Johnstone 2-1 – the final scoreline not quite doing justice to their dominance at McDiarmid Park.
Bojan Miovski farewell appearance?
Expected all summer, there is a chance star striker Bojan Miovski’s Aberdeen exit, likely to La Liga club Girona, could be confirmed by kick-off against St Mirren.
Following a fabulous two-year spell at the Dons, the North Macedonian looks certain to leave the Granite City – and with the near-universal best wishes of the Red Army – after a bucket-load of goals and having now made the club many multiples of the initial £535,000 fee paid for him.
The multi-millions raised will no doubt help manager Thelin’s rebuild over the rest of this and subsequent transfer windows. We’ve already seen the Dons flex this financial injection with the impending £850,000-plus arrival of HJK Helsinki winger Topi Keskinen.
However, it feels more likely Miovski will still be around come the weekend’s game.
Ahead of Monday’s Premiership opener at St Johnstone, following confirmation of No.10 Leighton Clarkson’s shoulder fracture and long-term injury absence, it was unclear how Thelin would fill the hole in attacking midfield.
He did it by giving Miovski – previously wrapped in cotton wool in pre-season and in the League Cup group stage – what looked like a surprise farewell start upfront in which the 25-year-old showed his class.
Will Thelin now allow Miovski his Pittodrie goodbye?
The alternative (if Thelin sticks with his preferred 4-2-3-1) is Jamie McGrath moving from left wing to No.10, with Pape Habib Gueye or Vicente Besuijen on the left.
However, might Thelin instead keep striker Ester Sokler in the No.10 role and play undoubtedly raw summer signing Peter Ambrose upfront? Or could he use the duo in a front-two?
Unlikely we will see midfielder Ante Palaversa against St Mirren
On Thursday, Aberdeen announced their fifth summer signing – midfielder Ante Palaversa.
The Croatian, 24 – once a £6 million signing for Manchester City – has arrived from French side Troyes for an undisclosed fee.
However, he has only penned an initial one-year deal with the Dons (with the option of a further two years), which creates an air of intrigue around his arrival.
Aberdeen fans will be excited to see if Palaversa lives up to his reputation for long, accurate passing.
Even if he was ready to go, would Thelin risk upsetting the midfield pairing of captain Graeme Shinnie and earlier signing Sivert Heltne Nilsen, who have been an instant hit together so far?
Can Aberdeen be beneficiaries of any St Mirren Thursday-Sunday blues?
Last season, Aberdeen, competing first in the Europa League qualifying play-offs and then in the Conference League group stage, suffered domestic pain as they tried to balance European and Premiership commitments.
The Dons have no such headache (though it would be a nice headache to have!) this term, having finished in the top-flight’s bottom half last term.
Sunday’s opponents St Mirren, however, arrive at Pittodrie after contesting a Conference League third qualifying round first leg tie against Norway’s SK Brann – Nilsen’s old side – in Paisley on Thursday night.
The Buddies drew 1-1 ahead of next week’s return in Bergen.
How will their exertions, and the prospect of another crucial Euro clash to come in just a few days, affect them against Aberdeen?
And if they are sluggish, can Aberdeen make a fast start and exploit it?
Enter our new Dons Score Predictor League!
We have launched our new Dons Score Predictor League, where readers can win £100 for guessing the correct scoreline for each of Aberdeen’s Premiership matches in the 2024/25 season.
As well as a correct result for each league fixture seeing contestants entered into a £100 cash draw, a right answer will also earn them 1 point in our Dons Score Predictor League table – with the highest points scorer over the campaign winning a whopping £1,903.
The Dons Score Predictor League is open to Evening Express print readers and our online subscribers.
To ensure you’re a paying reader, you need to know the upcoming game password to fill in the entry form – which will be included in this pre-game talking points piece for each Premiership match.
The password for the Aberdeen v St Mirren game on Sunday is “Jimmy”.
You can find the form to enter your score prediction here – with the deadline for game 2 entries noon on Sunday.
Our writers’ predictions for this weekend’s game are…
Ryan Cryle: Aberdeen 3-1 St Mirren
Danny Law: Aberdeen 3-1 St Mirren
Paul Third: Aberdeen 2-1 St Mirren
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