Manchester City vs. Bolton Preview

Premier League leaders and title favourites Manchester City have a rare Saturday afternoon 3pm start when second bottom Bolton make the short visit across Lancashire to the Etihad Arena on March 3.

The pressure, focus and hype surrounding City has meant that many of their domestic fixtures so far this season have taken place outside of the regular weekend kick off time and in front of the Sky TV cameras.

Roberto Mancini’s side have consistently lived up to their new star billing and with just twelve games to go in the current campaign, it seems as if they are going to be hard to stop – particularly at home where they have remarkably recorded a 100% success rate with thirteen victories from thirteen games.

And City fans will be hoping that their team can move yet another step closer to Premier League glory with a routine win over Bolton Wanderers, who are in desperate need of a swift reprieve after sinking 3-0 at Chelsea in their last match.

However, a brief reading of the table alone indicates further disaster and capitulation for Bolton in this forthcoming fixture.

After making light work of Europa League champions Porto via a 4-0 trouncing in Manchester, City then completed a quick turnaround to smack another three goals past struggling Blackburn Rovers, taking their impressive strike tally to 67 in the league with 40 of those goals coming at home.

And that total only looks like being extended once more against a Bolton side who have conceded on 54 occasions since the start of the season.

Wanderers boss Owen Coyle will be feeling extremely frustrated at recent going’s on considering that the club have reached the last eight of the F.A Cup yet are still well and truly stuck in a relegation mire.

Fortunately for the Trotters, there are a handful of other teams in and around the bottom third performing equally as poorly - and despite only picking up 20 points to date, Bolton are just one victory away from potentially hauling themselves out of the drop zone.

Nevertheless, if Bolton are to maintain their top flight status, it will not be through winning games such as this and it would be foolish to forecast anything other than a resounding City success.

The hosts are sure to hold all the aces and prove too strong for their ailing opponents whose defence is now even shakier and void of confidence following the recent departure of Gary Cahill to Chelsea.

City, as mentioned, have continually delivered the goods when it has mattered and it is unlikely that they will slip up this time around in a match which will perhaps be slightly more low-key in comparison to some of their other fixtures and exploits over the last few months.

Best odds of 1/5 for another Manchester City home win tell the story in the most succinct way possible. This won’t be worth touching for the majority despite it seemingly being an opportunity to buy money off the bookmakers.

But the hosts are available at slight odds against giving a two goal start and that holds decent claims especially if City’s recent, similar task versus Blackburn is anything to go by.

Go To bet365

#Ad

26/02/2012     © Frixo 2024