Manchester City vs Arsenal Betting Pick | English Premier

English Premier

2011-12-18 - Manchester City vs Arsenal

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

Manchester City v Arsenal
Football: English Premier League
Sunday 18 December 2011 - Kick Off 4:10pm
This game is live on TV

Manchester City

So the team is fallible after all? It had looked like Manchester City were going to be very difficult to peg back in the race for the Premier League title, but a poor refereeing decision coupled with a strong second half from Chelsea means the team have lost their first game in England this season. Now the question is how they can bounce back?

Even after that defeat on Monday night, City remain 2 points clear of Manchester United in the title race and know they may be able to extend that lead in the coming weeks if they can get through this game. City have won all 7 games played at home in the Premier League this season, scoring 24 goals and conceding just 4, making them the top home scorers so far.

The team come into this one having won their last 8 home games in all competitions and they have scored at least 2 goals in each of those games. City have won their last 12 Premier League games at home, and their last 8 have come by at least 2 goals.

Micah Richards should return to the line up this week and he will take the place of the suspended Gael Clichy. Aleksandar Korolev is out for a couple more weeks at least, but Roberto Mancini has no other injury concerns to worry him.

Arsenal

Arsenal have been in great form and are keeping up the pressure on the sides in the top 4. After a terrible beginning to the season, the Gunners will be very pleased at how close they have kept themselves to the top teams and will look to push on in the New Year. This game, however, will represent a big challenge for the team and will show them how far they have still to go.

The Gunners are 5th in the Premier League table but are only 2 points behind Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur who occupy 3rd and 4th spot in the table. They have a 3-1-3 away record in the League, scoring 17 goals and conceding 18, a record that means only Blackburn have conceded more goals on their travels and only Manchester City have scored more.

Arsenal have picked up 22 points from their last 24 in the Premier League since losing 2-1 at White Hart Lane. While they haven't had the most taxing of fixtures in that time, Arsenal have also recorded an impressive 3-5 away win at Chelsea and they have won their last 3 away games in the League, scoring 11 goals in those wins.

Arsene Wenger is really struggling at the full back positions as Andre Santos is the latest long-term absentee following Bacary Sagna. Kieran Gibbs and Carl Jenkinson remain doubtful as Arsenal were forced to field 4 centre halves last week in the win over Everton. Abou Diaby could make his return to the squad for this game.

Head to Head

Manchester City have failed to score in the last 3 League games against Arsenal, drawing two games at the Emirates Stadium 0-0, and losing here 0-3 last season.

That game last season was really turned on its head thanks to City being reduced to 10 men after only 5 minutes of the game- they had beaten Arsenal in 3 consecutive games at home before that loss last year.

The two teams met in the Carling Cup a couple of weeks ago with City winning 0-1 at the Emirates Stadium, although it was a much changed Arsenal team that really did perform well.

Prediction

This should be a very good match on Sunday afternoon as two teams that are very good to watch get matched against one another.

I expect Arsenal will cause problems for the home side, but I am still not convinced with the way their defence operates and I think City are the kind of team that will expose this achilles heel.

City have plenty of players who enjoy getting the ball down and playing themselves and I think they will have the bigger influence with the better midfield being able to control the game a little better than their Arsenal counterparts.

Arsenal may well get on the scoresheet, but I have a feeling we are going to see a City team that is very keen to make a statement to the rest of the Premier League and I fancy they will be too strong.

City should be able to expose the backline here and they had won 3 games in a row by at least 2 goals against the Gunners before last season. With their last 8 Premier League home wins coming by at least 2 goals, I am going to back the home side to cover the Asian Handicap.

The Statistics :

MAN_CITY LAST SIX HOME FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2011-12-03	W	5-1	H v Norwich
	2011-11-19	W	3-1	H v Newcastle
	2011-10-29	W	3-1	H v Wolves
	2011-10-15	W	4-1	H v Aston_Villa
	2011-09-24	W	2-0	H v Everton
	2011-09-10	W	3-0	H v Wigan

ARSENAL LAST SIX AWAY FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2011-12-03	W	0-4	A v Wigan
	2011-11-19	W	1-2	A v Norwich
	2011-10-29	W	3-5	A v Chelsea
	2011-10-02	L	2-1	A v Tottenham
	2011-09-17	L	4-3	A v Blackburn
	2011-08-28	L	8-2	A v Man_Utd

HEAD TO HEAD MAN_CITY v ARSENAL
DATE	HOME	SCORE	AWAY
2010-10-24	Man_City	0-3	Arsenal
2009-09-12	Man_City	4-2	Arsenal
2008-11-22	Man_City	3-0	Arsenal
2008-02-02	Man_City	1-3	Arsenal
2006-08-26	Man_City	1-0	Arsenal
2006-05-04	Man_City	1-3	Arsenal