Man City aim to close in on Chelsea at the top

Premier League

Football
Published: 15/10/2014

After a dramatic end to the latest group of Euro 2016 qualifying matches on Tuesday night, thoughts turn back to the English Premier League and Saturday`s early kick at the Etihad Stadium where Manchester City take on Tottenham Hotspur. Each team will be awaiting the return of their key players from international duty and hoping that they have not picked up any knocks whilst playing for their country.

Following a home defeat to Stoke City and the two draws against title rivals Arsenal and Chelsea, Manuel Pellegrini can not allow his Manchester City team to have another off day in this match and fall further behind in the title race. With Chelsea facing Crystal Palace, Manchester City will know they must win this match if they are to at least remain five points adrift of Jose Mourinho`s team and they are 1/2 with ladbrokes to do just that. However, having lost that game to Stoke City and drawn with Chelsea, Manchester City have already dropped the same amount of points at home as they did throughout the whole of last season, when they went on to win the title.

Argentine striker Sergio Aguero, who has been struggling for full fitness again this season, should return from international duty feeling fresh having not played any part in his countries win over Hong Kong this week and is 4/1 with Coral to get the first goal of the game. Another player returning from international duty is Edin Dzeko, who scored for Bosnia Herzegovina against Belgium and the striker is available at 9/2 with bet365 to score first. Despite the tempting odds of 7/1 available through Coral for Yaya Toure to get the first goal, beware that the Ivorian is not due back from international duty until 24 hours before kick-off and this is likely to rule the midfielder out of the game.

Spurs start the match in 6th place but are just three points off Manchester City and will see this game as a chance to stamp their credentials as a team challenging for the top four places this season. They are 7/1 with BetVictor to come away with all three points. However, their form has been inconsistent this season, including a good point away to Arsenal but also home defeats to West Bromwich Albion and Liverpool, the latter of which was a heavy 3-0 loss. Spurs have only managed to keep one clean sheet in their last five outings and if they are to come away with a positive result of any sort then it`s likely to be a draw with BetVictor offering 5/1 for the match to end in a draw with both teams scoring. Having already scored twice this season, creative midfielder Christian Eriksen will be hoping to continue from where he left off against Southampton and is 5/1 with bet365 to score at any time during the match.

If Spurs are to come away with a good result, they will need to put last season`s results against Manchester City behind them, losing both games heavily, including a 6-0 defeat at the Etihad Stadium. It`s difficult to imagine another heavy defeat for Spurs this time around, especially considering their performance in the recent match away to Arsenal but Manchester City are still favourites for this game and are 7/2 with ladbrokes to win the game by a two goal margin. With Yaya Toure struggling to make it back in time for the match, it could be the perfect opportunity for Frank Lampard to step in and paddypower offer 5/2 for Lampard to score and Manchester City to win.

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Any odds displayed within this article were correct at the time of publishing (15/10/2014) but are subject to change.

15/10/2014     © Frixo 2024

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