English Premier
2011-04-11 - Liverpool vs Manchester City
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football : English Premier League
Monday 11 April 2011 - Kickoff 8pm
This game is live on TV
Liverpool
The suggestion is that talks between the owners of Liverpool and Kenny Dalglish have already begun in regards to agreeing a contract for the latter to become the permanent manager of the club. Dalglish will be looking to impress his prospective new bosses by guiding Liverpool as high as possible in the last few weeks of the season, although they will be missing Steven Gerrard.
Liverpool saw their chances of finishing in the top 5, and a European place, take a knock over the weekend with all of the teams above them earning 3 points from their games (bar Manchester City). That really means Liverpool will have to win this game if they realistically want to finish in the European places. They are 9-4-2 at Anfield this season, scoring 26 goals and conceding 12, records that puts them in the top reaches of the table in terms of wins and goals conceded.
They have been a little inconsistent of late, with only 1 win from 4 games in all competitions since beating Manchester United here. Liverpool are unbeaten in all 7 games at Anfield under the guidance of Dalglish, and they have won 3 of their last 4 League games there.
Steven Gerrard is likely out for the rest of the season, and will be joined on the sidelines by Dan Agger and Glen Johnson. David N'Gog has returned from injury last week, while Fabio Aurelio and Jonjo Shelvey are both lacking match fitness.
Manchester City
Roberto Mancini released his team from the tight leash he has kept them on for much of the season and City responded by beating Sunderland 5-0 at home last week. It is hard to imagine the Italian playing such an attacking line up away from home, especially with the pressure of trying to get into the Champions League for next season.
Like Liverpool, Manchester City would not have been too happy with seeing all the other Champions League contenders winning this weekend. They dropped to 4th in the table and now hold a 3 point lead over Spurs in 5th. City are 6-4-5 away from home this season, scoring 22 goals and conceding 16. They have conceded the least amount of away goals in the League along with Chelsea.
City come into this game having won 3 of their last 4 games in all competitions and they have the FA Cup Semi Final against Manchester United next week to whet their appetite. However, they have now failed to win any of their last 9 away games in all competitions, and have actually lost 3 of the last 4. City have failed to score in their last 3 away from the City of Manchester Stadium.
Roberto Mancini has not indicated that there are any new injury worries to concern him. Jerome Boateng and Micah Richards remain sidelined with injuries.
Head to Head
Manchester City are unbeaten in their last 4 Premier League games against Liverpool, including a 3-0 home win earlier this season.
Liverpool had won 5 in a row at Anfield against City before drawing two in a row there.
This game finished 2-2 last season.
Prediction
After watching how Manchester City have lined up in all of their away games against the better teams in the Premier League, it is perhaps a little easy to look at the under 2.5 goals market, especially more so with Liverpool missing the influence and presence of Steven Gerrard.
However, I feel there will be goals in this game as both sides will be desperate to pick up the points for different reasons.
Even without Gerrard, Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll will cause an injury hit City backline plenty of problems, while I expect David Silva, Mario Balotelli and Carlos Tevez to do the same for City against a depleted Liverpool backline.
All in all, the 1.9 being offered on Bodog for both teams to score looks more than reasonable and I will back that.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Liverpool 1-1 Manchester City
BEST BETTING TIP :
I'll back Both Teams to Score @ 1.9 Bodog (2 UNITS)Follow me on Twitter- the direct link is below
