Last season\’s Champions take on one of this season\’s title favourites in a game that has some significance for both sides.
Leicester are currently sitting in 16th place, just 3 points ahead of the relegation zone and a bad result here could see them drop down into the bottom 3, something that would be as difficult to believe as their incredible title win last season. Manchester City, on the other hand, are in 4th place and need every point they can to keep up the chase with Chelsea who are 4 points ahead of them right now.
As the reigning champions, Leicester have had to put up with clubs changing their tactics and taking them a lot more seriously than they did last season. Combine that with the loss of N’Golo Kante (who really made their midfield work) and you can start to see why Leicester are struggling this season. Teams aren’t pushing up as high on them this year as they were last. Leicester are now finding they have to break the opposition down and are themselves getting hit on the break. Jamie Vardy has hit a wall and isn’t scoring goals the way he did last season and refs are getting wise to the tactics they employ at set pieces, meaning they’re a bit more fragile at the back.
Manchester City aren’t having an unblemished season, they lost last weekend to Chelsea and saw two important players sent off, both of whom will be suspended for this game and in Aguero’s case potentially a lot longer. Pep Guardiola is clearly a fantastic manager, you don’t achieve what he has in the game by being ordinary, but I don’t think he’s come to grips with the Premier League just yet. In Spain and Germany, there are games where you can ease off a bit, rotate the squad and take a few chances. In England you don’t get that luxury, even the sides at the bottom of the table will beat you if they catch you playing at half speed.
Both sides have had defensive issues this season, Leicester have kept just 3 clean sheets in the league while Manchester City have only kept 2. There should be goals from both sides, even with Aguero suspended, and the odds offered among Green Listed Bookmakers on the Over 2.5 goals actually look ok with Pinnacle offering odds of 1.75. The odds for Both Teams To Score (Yes) are just a bit too low for me though and I’ll stay out of that one.
I’m half expecting a Manchester City win in this one but at the same time, I wouldn’t be surprised if Leicester managed to come out of this one with a point. For that reason I’m staying out of the Match Odds market and sticking to just my Over/Under 2.5 goals bet in this one.
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