Manchester City v Chelsea – Match Preview and Betting Tip
Manchester City will have watched the European capers of the last couple of weeks with a great deal of envy, with their own European ambitions having been snuffed out with little more fuss or inconvenience than a smoker stubbing out a cigarette some months ago. With last season’s Premier League champions trailing considerably in the Premier League, the FA Cup looks to be City’s only hope of a trophy for this season. Their could yet be another very siginificant Manchester derby to look forward to in this season’s domestic cup, possibly at Wembley.
Meanwhile, the defending champions must continue to attempt to make something of a fist of defending their crown, even if their hopes of catching Manchester United appear largely forlorn. Not least because it is of paramount importance to them to secure a guaranteed Champions League place for next season as soon as possible. Chelsea are also relying on some of the lesser cup competitions for their glory this season, after exiting the Champions League at the group stages, and their Premier League title challenge having fizzled out weakly some months ago.
Having battered Leeds 4-0 at home in the FA Cup last weekend, Roberto Mancini may choose to stick with many of the players that impressed on that occasion, with Carlos Tevez preferred to Edin Dzeko in attack, and possibly Kolarov selected ahead of Nasri in defence. Chelsea are likely to recall Fernando Torres to their starting eleven, despite his recent barren run, and may field all three of Oscar, Mata and Hazard.
Manchester City (possible 4-2-3-1): Hart; Zabaleta, Nastasic, Lescott, Kolarov; Y. Toure, Garcia; Milner, Silva, Aguero; Tevez
Chelsea (possible 4-2-3-1): Cech; Azpilicueta, Luiz, Cahill, Bertrand; Ramires, Lampard; Hazard, Mata, Oscar; Torres
Betting Prediction: This is a very tricky fixture to predict, with neither side having been in exemplary form of late. Manchester City’s home record is second to none in the Premier League over the last two seasons, which must be taken into consideration. However, Chelsea have actually performed well away from home and have the firepower and creativity to score goals in any fixture that they participate in. On the other hand, late goals have perpetually hurt the Blues in their recent away games.
City are considered fairly strong favourites to win this match, meaning that both the draw and a Chelsea victory are well priced. The draw at odds of 5-2 seem particularly tempting in a match in which both sides are well capable of winning. It’s hard to see Chelsea putting up a blanket defence and playing for a 0-0 as many visitors to the Etihad resort to, so I can easily see their being goals at both ends in this one. So two good bets that seem pretty likely to come off are to back both teams to score, and to go for the over 2.5 bet in the over / under 2.5 market. I expect to see goals in this fixture, and backing there to be a significant number would seem to be the way to go in this betting market.
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