Manchester City v Everton Betting Tips

These two teams had both made excellent starts to the season before stuttering a bit before the international break – both failed to win their last match. A fun little subplot to this match is that it sees two former Barcelona teammates take each other on.

Manchester City had a 100% record before facing up to potential fellow title challengers Tottenham in their last match where they suffered a 2-0 loss. Having achieved their winning streak against weaker sides in the division (apart from Manchester United), they faced a much sterner test against Spurs and came out second best. They face a similar scenario against high-flying Everton on Saturday.

Pep Guardiola’s squad is undoubtedly the best team on paper in the Premier League, however, this match could be a test of their squad depth with a few players carrying knocks coming into the match against Everton. The trio which have really sparkled for City this season have been Kevin de Bruyne, Sergio Aguero and Raheem Sterling – all three of them are carrying slight knocks along with full back Bacary Sagna. If the understudies are required, can they come in and have the same impact as those players?

We all know that Manchester City’s strength is going forward, hence why they are the division’s joint top scorers with 18 goals. However, Guardiola’s side like to play out from the back and take risks. Top teams with a high press are able to take advantage of any potential mistakes and put pressure on the Man City back-line – as we saw Tottenham do so brilliantly in the last round of fixtures.

Overall City’s defence is not that fantastic and they have conceded seven goals this season. That of course is not a terrible record but it is pretty equal with other teams in top ten and even tenth place Southampton, along with Saturday’s opponents Everton, have actually let in fewer goals (6) than the Citizens. Everton, like Tottenham did, may be able to exploit this with their explosive forward line.

Romelu Lukaku is the embodiment of that front-line. The Belgian striker has been in fantastic form this season and is currently the second top scorer in the league with five goals. His last goal (against Crystal Palace) saw him score a free kick. This is not an amazing feat when you look at it simply like that, however, it was one of the few free-kicks that Lukaku has ever taken and thus shows the confidence running through the Belgian’s veins right now.

With Manchester City’s defence looking uneasy against the bigger sides, Lukaku will fancy his chances and I would certainly look at backing him to score anytime at 5/2. Having said that, I would wait until nearer the time to place this bet as he is reportedly struggling with a minor injury suffered on international duty.

As previously mentioned, Everton have a strong defence with just the five goals conceded. Ashley Williams and Phil Jagielka (who is an injury doubt for this match) are up there as one of the best centre-back pairings in the league, whilst extra protection is provided by holding midfielders Gareth Barry, who seems to be getting better with age, and Idrissa Gueye who’s been a revelation since his switch from Aston Villa. However, that potential injury to Jagielka could really hurt Everton this weekend.

Although they have had a good start to the season, their positive results this campaign have been recorded against the weaker sides in the League. This Everton side are yet to be tested away from home by one of the better sides and so Saturday’s fixture against Manchester City will be a good gauge of what to expect from them for the rest of the season.

All in all, they might have started well, but the Toffees have stumbled in the last couple of matches – picking up just one point from a possible six. Coming off the back of a couple of bad results, Manchester City away is hardly the fixture you want to regain confidence.

It is hard not to back Manchester City at the Etihad where they have won all of their matches – scoring 14 goals and conceding just two. However, Everton have a strong attack which could and indeed should cause problems for the City defence. This all leads perfectly to the two worthy looking bets of ‘Manchester City to Win & Both Teams to Score’ at odds of 9/5 and ‘Manchester City to Win & Over 2.5 Goals’.

See all of Saturday’s tips here.