Manchester City faces a real fight if they are to win the Premier League in Pep Guardiola’s’ first season. The bookies made City and neighbours United strong favourites in the football betting markets back in August. Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham have all made strong starts to the season. This has increased the pressure on Guardiola. Their recent 3-1 win against Barcelona will have done wonders for the teams’ morale.
City Need to Bounce Back
Only five points separate the top five teams. This season is shaping up to be the most exciting season for years. Six teams are in with a shout of taking the title. The dramatic win against Barcelona may have been a great result for City, but that didn’t prevent them from tumbling back down to earth several days later.
The 1-1 draw at home to Middlesbrough was yet another game where the Sky Blues have dropped valuable points this season. They now trail Liverpool by two points after leading the division by four points just a few weeks ago. Another defeat would not go down too well at the Etihad, especially when they face a tough trip next week to Germany in the Champions League.
Can Pardew hang with Pep
Alan Pardew is one of the longest serving Premier League managers. He has a history of beating the big teams on the big occasions. Selhurst Park is a tight little ground that no away team likes. Their supporters generate a terrific atmosphere, and very few teams come away from Palace with an easy win.
Palace is certainly a team that can rough up their opponents. Guardiola still seems to be having problems with the City defence. Players like John Stones seem to be caught between the two objectives of needing to be expansive and eliminating mistakes. City is as short as 1-2 with Bet365, while they also quote Palace at 5-1 for the home win.
The Value isn’t with City
The Premier League is a tough uncompromising division. Any team in the league can go on a run of negative results at any time. So the question is, are the bookies reading too much into the fact that Palace has lost their last four games, and only have one win in six? City recently went on a similar winless run, but then beat West Brom 4-0 away, and Barcelona 3-1 within a matter of days.
If you fancy City to be denied and be held to a draw yet again, then BetVictor offer an attractive 19/5. It’s difficult to be overly confident in any team that can beat Barcelona 3-1, and then be held 1-1 at home to Middlesbrough several days later.
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