Can Man City Stop The Rot Against Albion?

Manchester City have failed to pick up a win in their last two games, falling to a 1-0 defeat to Burnley in the Premier League last Saturday before being knocked out of the Champions League after a one goal to nil loss against Barcelona in their second leg at the Nou Camp on Wednesday. City must look to turn their fortunes on their head as they host West Bromwich Albion tomorrow, the Sky Blues looking to close the six point gap on league leaders Chelsea.

A further loss for Manuel Pellegrini`s men could see them fall to as low as fourth with Arsenal and Manchester United playing Newcastle and Liverpool respectively this weekend. Luckily for the Manchester club, the North West derby taking place on Sunday between their local rivals and fifth placed Liverpool means that any damage would be limited. West Brom sit in 13th in the Premier League with seemingly very little to play for. Albion are eight points from the relegation zone and look safe enough at this stage of the season whilst they are a full six points and an 11 goal swing away from 10th position. An unlikely win against the reigning Premier League champions could see them move to 11th whilst a defeat could see them usurped by Everton, should the Toffees beat QPR away from home.

The two sides last met on Boxing Day, their match at the Hawthorns their only meeting this season. It was the visitors who ruled supreme on that occasion, hitting three goals past Ben Foster as Brown Ideye managed to score a consolation goal with three minutes to go. Albion were then under the stewardship of Alan Irvine who would soon lose his job to Tony Pulis.

City were able to score all their goals in the first half, Fernando hitting the back of the net with the game only eight minutes young. Yaya Toure added insult to the Baggies` injury five minutes later after he converted a penalty whilst David Silva scored the third of the three City goals 10 minutes from half-time.

A number of bookmakers currently have the best price of 11/1 (bet365, betfair, Coral, Totesport) on the home side winning by a 3-1 scoreline once again. Otherwise, Fernando is a 33/1 (betfair, Betvictor, Coral) chance to break the deadlock whilst betfair`s 7/2 says that the Sky Blues will be awarded a spot-kick at any time.

Indeed it is the Etihad Stadium outfit who are the favourites to pick up all three points at home tomorrow. Most bookmakers are offering the best price of 1/3 on Pellegrini`s men winning by any means. A draw is available at 5/1 at both bet365 and Betfair whilst it is 11/1 (betfair, Betvictor) should you think that Albion will be able to pile on City fans` misery.

Despite their recent poor form, Manchester City have a positive record at home in the league, they are currently unbeaten in three and have picked up 10 points from their last five games at the Etihad Stadium.

It is Silva who is their player in form at home, having contributed three goals in the last two home games we are concerned with. The Spaniard grabbed a brace in their 5-0 victory over Newcastle whilst hitting one past Leicester in his team`s 2-0 win. unibet have the attacking midfielder at 16/1 to grab two or more goals tomorrow or he can be backed at 15/2 (32red, 888sport, unibet) to break the deadlock in successive top tier home matches.

Albion have only scored four goals in their last five games on their travels and are available at a price of 39/40 (888sport, unibet) to score over 0.5 goals tomorrow. Coral`s 11/2 says that they won`t score over 1.5 in the early kick-off.

Go To bet365

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20/03/2015     © Frixo 2026