Swansea City v Manchester City Betting Tips

This fixture is the dress rehearsal for the Premier League fixture between these two former League Cup champions on Saturday. Both of these sides have different priorities this season so I doubt we will see a cracker at the Liberty on Wednesday night.

Swansea’s home 2-2 draw against Chelsea a couple of weeks ago masked the problems that once again came to the fore in last weekend’s loss against Southampton. They do not have nearly enough firepower to trouble most sides in the Premier League and have only scored four goals so far this season. All of this means that as soon as a team scores against the Swans, you can pretty much guarantee that they are not winning that match. Their only win in the league this season was ‘to nil’ against Burnley in the campaign opener back in August.

Perhaps the League Cup represents an opportunity for Swansea to unshackle and express themselves, however, playing against Manchester City really puts paid to that happening.

Manager Francesco Guidolin has repeatedly called for his team to show more aggression in their play after some rather half-hearted displays. He may well ask for it but it seems the players are incapable of delivering it. You cannot switch on and off so simply at this level of football and it seems Swansea’s players are now stuck in a bit of a rut.

Midfielder Leon Britton, who has been at the club since 2003, has said players must respect Guidolin after his substitutions drew angry reactions from Neil Taylor and Ki-Sung Yeung. For a player to come out and say that in public shows that all is incredibly far from perfect at Swansea City.

What can you say about Manchester City? They have just been pretty much perfect ever since Pep Guardiola came into the manager’s office at the start of this season and two 4-0 victories on the bounce must have the players dreaming of a quadruple this season.

Although the League Cup will be low in the priority list in that quadruple, I imagine Pep Guardiola will still be desperate to win it as his first trophy as Citizens boss. Expect a weakened City side in south Wales but do not expect any less intensity from Manchester City. Even if the side is weakened, most of those players would walk blindfolded into the majority of Premier League squads.

One of those players is Leroy Sane who is likely to make his first Manchester City start on Wednesday night. The 20-year-old is just one of the latest hot prospects to come off the conveyer belt of German youth production. The youngster is  having to bide his time – the fact he has only played 11 minutes of competitive, top level international football just shows the strength in depth the Germans have.

The former Schalke 04 man has only made two substitute appearances for City and will be keen to demonstrate his talents to his new manager in order to work his way into the Manchester City starting line-up. Going up against a Swansea side who lack confidence should suit the German and I would certainly back him to score at 15/8.

There are other bets in this fixture that also appeal. Firstly City to emerge victorious in combination with ‘Over 2.5 Goals’ at 11/10 is certainly worth going for. Guardiola’s side will probably score the three goals themselves and, given their current scoring form, this price is too good to miss.

Finally I would look at Manchester City winning without conceding at 43/20. Swansea are pretty atrocious going forward and I would expect even a weakened Man City back-line to be able to cope with the lame Swans’ goal threat whilst the Manchester City win is too obvious.

See more EFL Cup tips here.