MANCHESTER CITY v LIVERPOOL
Football : English Premier League
Monday, August 23rd 2010 - Start 8:00PM GMT

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What's that? You'd like to buy a couple MORE players? But we've just bou.... Alright! Stop stomping your feet! Here's £50m...

MANCHESTER CITY

Yep, as if this summers spending wasn't enough by the worlds richest club, Abu Dhabi have handed over another huge sum in their pursuit of the acquisition of the Premier League title (try finishing in the top 4 to start, chaps).

For their money, they have Inter Milan's spoilt brat Mario Baloteli and England's James Milner, from Aston Villa. Baloteli was not favoured by Mourinho at Inter, but Milner was a key player in last week's 3-0 over West Ham in what was his farewell match. So anyway, £50m spent, and neither will play this game against a major rival. Nice work.

So, the first game of the season is behind us, and City were given a bit of a lesson while being held to a draw by Spurs. City were, in truth, lucky not to have been buried by HT but anyway, here they are, facing another rival, but this time, they are at home. they must change their tactics from the last game, where they were more focused on defence than on attacking. Speaking of defence, Joe Hart will continue in goal, and he showed his worth in singlehandedly keeping City in their last game.

I'm not going to go into a lot of info/team news as it's early, but what is clear is that with over £100m spent, and the tactic of defence having netted a draw, Mancini will now revert to an all out attack in order to pick up a win and steal a head start on their main rivals.

LIVERPOOL

I'm not sure what Liverpool will be thinking here. They started the new season eager to put behind them the nightmare that was last year, and saw the marquee new signing get sent off for a reckless challenge.

With Joe Cole off, the Scousers still managed to poach a goal and were minutes from the win before goalkeeper Reina made a dogs dinner of collecting a ball that had been hit against the post by Chamakh. 1-1 it finished and Im sure that must feel like a loss to Liverpool.

Roy Hodgson needs his men to not let their heads drop, and frankly, I don't think that is going to be a problem. There is a massive rivalry between clubs from Manchester and Liverpool and this one will be no different.

Liverpool have already been tested in my opinion, going a man down and fighting their way to lead a very good side, with only an unlucky mistake keeping them from a win. They will look to the positives and know that they can do the same to City, and will ride Ngog's form in front of goal and be hopeful of getting more here.

Torres will start here, and he has scored twice at this ground a couple of years ago. The rest of the team is available and will play, with the only definite absentee being Joe Cole. Expect an attacking display, and one that will see them get on the scoreboard.

BETTING VERDICT

I see both teams attacking hard, and this could very well end up 1-1 or 2-2, with the chance of a 1 goal win by either side if things fall their way.

But, taking that all into account, the best bet in this game for me has to be the lack of a clean sheet on either side.

The Statistics :

The Pick :

Take both teams to score in this one

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Both teams to score @ 1.95 (Bet365) - MAIN BET