Based on current odds and despite City and Arsenal being ahead of the pre-season spread, City are about a 17% chance to win the league and Arsenal 12%. With Chelsea looking relentless, prospects of the PL title looks very difficult already and a defeat today for either City or Arsenal today is realistically curtains for their chances. Cue the inevitable “Fraudiola” or Wenger “specialist in failure backlash” in the media and social media….
From a betting angle, c£350K traded on BF when City were in the 1.68 to 1.71 range to win the title earlier in the season. Despite Chelsea’s strong position now the shortest they’ve been is 1.80 which seems like value to me.
City are likely to drop into 5th if we lose today and our rapidly improving neighbours from Stretford just 3 points behind. Hmmm.
So a big game for City today. And Arsenal as well as course. There have been some crackers between City and Arsenal at the Etihad in recent years. My favourites being the 6-3 at this time of year in the 13/14 season and the 4-2 with the Adebayor celebration in 2009/2010. I’m sure Ralph will have his own favourites
I’d need to look up the year but I can remember one schooling from Arsenal about 10 years ago and it was as good as anything I’ve seen at City. In fact that good Arsenal were applauded off the pitch.
Interesting stat is that City only won 2 out of the 18 games against the 3 teams who finished with us in the Top 4 in the Pellegrini seasons 13/14-15/16. Guardiola has a record of 1 loss from 1 played against the current top 4. Meanwhile, Arsenal’s away record against the top teams for those same 3 seasons is terrible – just 3 wins from 24 away games against the teams who finished in the top 9.
I’m always hopeful but difficult to be optimistic about today. No Dinho, Aguero or Gundogan after his cruciate blow. Of those 3 and specifically for today, Dinho is the biggest miss for me. So nailed on for 3-0 City with Bravo MOTM..
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