Manchester City looks to take advantage of the meeting between Arsenal and Man United later in the day and cement their second place (and top 3 finish) in the Premier League, with a win over Swansea in Wales. However, it will be far from a walk in the park for Pellegrini’s men.
Swansea is in top shape lately, winning three games on the spin, including a 1-0 victory over Arsenal last round – playing an excellent game on the defensive end of the pitch. The Welsh side lost only once in the last 7 matches, away at red hot Leicester. Swansea is currently 8th in the standings and can actually qualify for Europe – a win today would see them only 2 points behind 6th placed Tottenham, so there`s still everything to fight form, even if the chances are obviously rather slim.
Manchester City has put together a string of 4 wins in a row and the visitors are on the back of a 6-0 victory over QPR, their best performance in a very long time. However, the recent form of City is not as impressive as it seems – they struggled to get their wins, played 3 of thes 4 matches at home and met the likes of QPR, Aston Villa or Newcastle. They also won a close game at White Hart Lane against Tottenham, after previously losing all their last 5 matches on the road – incredibly poor stats for a team of City’s caliber.
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Team news & lineups:
Carroll, Naughton, Routledge, Amat and Oliveira are out for Swansea, but neither of them took part in the Arsenal win. As for City, they can field their best lineup aside from Samir Nasri.
Swansea City: Fabianski – Richards, Williams, Fernandez, Taylor – Cork, Shelvey – Dyer, Sigurdsson, Montero – Gomis
Manchester City: Hart – Zabaleta, Kompany, Mangala, Kolarov – Fernandinho, Toure – Milner, Silva, Aguero – Bony
Gary Monk has done a tremendous job with this Swansea team and they have really reached top form in this last part of the season. Manchester City remains of course the better team, but you can’t expect the favorites to win all the time and this seems like one of those heavenly-made opportunities for the underdogs to spring the upset.
Indeed, City will be very focused and a win is necessary, but Swansea will also be exuberant with their new found Euopean hopes. It should be an electric atmosphere and the way Man City played on the road recently, one can argue that they are more likely to not win this one in Wales than they are to win. The citizens are in great form if you look at the stats, but truth is they were not too impressive aside for the QPR game last week. Expect a solid tactical game by Swansea, which should frustrate a star-driven Man City side. My tip is Swansea +0,75 asian handicap. Prediction: Swansea City – Manchester City 1-1.
Pick: Swansea City (+0,75 Asian Handicap)
Odds: 2.02 @ Sbobet
Stake: 8
Possible profit: 8.16
Event date: 17 May