On Saturday, at 15:00, Manchester City and Burnley will face each other in the 10th round of the Premier League, in one of the most unbalanced duels in the recent history of the championship.
Manchester City is on a modest 13th place in the league (goal average 10-11), after a modest start to the campaign. With only 10 goals scored, the “citizens” feel the absence of a goal scorer the size of Sergio Aguero, but Sterling, Jesus, Mahrez and Foden hope to be a bit more efficient at the beginning of winter. Burnley is only 17th in the Premier League (goal average 4-12) and also has problems in attack. It is also a solid reason why the white-cherry team has achieved only one success in the last five stages, being now in the dangerous area of relegation.
It is remarkable that in 8 of the last 9 matches played by Burnley he scored at most one of the teams, so the “score both” bet can be a “bankrupt” option on Saturday. In the last stage, Burnley achieved a great success on Turf Moor, score 1-0, in a match decided by the goal scored early by Chris Wood (‘8). This result comes after a 0-0 draw in Brighton, so the current form of the guests is encouraging. Instead, City comes after a 1-0 win at Olympiacos in the UEFA Champions League, but lost the last league game to Tottenham (0-2).
It was a modest performance for Guardiola’s team, which showed its limits in front of an extremely valuable defense. With no goals scored in the last 4 official victories, City will storm the opposing goal from the start, as it has done every time in the last duels with Burnley: 5-0, 4-1, 5-0 and 3-0 are the scores that “citizens” have become accustomed to in this meeting.
In fact, City has 6 victories in a row with Burnley and 9 victories in the last 10 games. On Saturday, Burnley can’t count on the injured Stephens and Cork, but he comes to play a defensive match on the Etihad, hoping for a lucky draw. Statistics show us, however, that Burnley has won 15 of the last 20 championship matches in which he scored the first goal!
Man City: Ederson; Walker, Fernandinho, Laporte, Mendy; D Silva, Rodri, De Bruyne; Sterling, Jesus, Mahrez
Coach: Pep Guardiola
Burnley: Pope; Bardsley, Tarkowski, Mee, Taylor; Hendrick, Westwood, Cork, McNeil; Wood, Vydra
Coach: Sean Dyche
In 4 of the last 5 matches of Manchester City, under 2.5 goals were scored;
Manchester City has only one failure in the last 14 official matches – the one with Tottenham;
Burnley have won only one of the last 8 official domestic matches;
At least three goals have been scored in 5 of the last 6 direct duels;
City have won by at least three goals the last 5 home duels with Burnley;
PREDICTION: Over 2,5 goals @ 1,43
