English Premier
2012-09-15 - Stoke City vs Manchester City
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Premier League
Saturday 15 September 2012 - Kick Off 3pm
Stoke City
Stoke City just love ruffling the weathers of the 'big' teams in the Premier League and they may just feel Manchester City are in a ripe spot for a surprise result in this one. The likes of City, Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool have all regularly struggled at the Brittania Stadium since Stoke returned to the top flight and Tony Pulis will be hoping for more of the same.
The team have picked up 3 points from their opening 3 games of the season, all of those ending in draws including a 0-0 draw with Arsenal here. Stoke have drawn at Reading and Wigan Athletic, while they also drew with Swindon here in the Capital One Cup before being beaten in extra time. They are currently 12th in the Premier League at this early stage of the new season.
Stoke are unbeaten in their last 9 home games in all competitions, although they have begun to struggle to put some wins together. They have drawn their last 5 home games in all competitions at the Brittania Stadium and 6 of their last 7 have ended in the spoils being shared.
Matthew Etherington has a chance of recovering from a hamstring issue in time for this game, while Michael Owen is available for selection having signed for Stoke in the last couple of weeks.
Manchester City
Roberto Mancini was furious that Argentina decided to call up injured Sergio Aguero for their recent World Cup qualifiers, but that matter has been put to rest as he can now concentrate on the Premier League and the start of the Champions League before the next set of international games next month.
Manchester City have picked up 7 points from their opening 3 games in the Premier League, beating both Southampton and Queens Park Rangers at home while earning a 2-2 draw from a game at Liverpool. The team are currently 4th in the Premier League and they remain just 2 points behind Chelsea who are the only team with a 100% record so far.
They are unbeaten in their last 4 Premier League games away from home and they had won 3 in a row before that draw at Anfield. Before that recent run, City had won just 2 of their previous 10 away games in the Premier League, while they had lost 5 of those games.
Gareth Barry should be available after recovering from an injury, but the likes of Mario Balotelli and Sergio Aguero are expected to have late fitness tests to determine their availability. Micah Richards is still missing.
Head to Head
Stoke City have had a strong home record against Manchester City since returning to the top flight.
They are unbeaten in 5 games in all competitions since that time, winning 2 of those games while drawing the other 3 all 1-1.
Prediction
Stoke City haven't had a great start to the new season and that has to be some concern considering the way they ended the last season in the top flight, but they may just be able to get something from this game if Manchester City are caught looking ahead.
You wouldn't exactly blame City to be perhaps focusing their attention to other games this week as they travel to Real Madrid in the Champions League and also host Arsenal in their next Premier League game, but the Brittania Stadium has proven a tough ground for them in recent seasons and they won't be able to afford to do that.
City have also been poor defensively in their opening League games and Stoke have the players that could take advantage of that, although I am not convinced they have enough to win the game.
I was tempted in picking Stoke City on the Asian Handicap which will still return half the stakes if they lose by the solitary goal, but I just feel Manchester City have been over-rated here a little considering their recent record at this ground.
Instead of the handicap, I did like the look of the draw in this game which is a big price considering how popular a result it has been at the Brittania Stadium in recent games as well as the 3 draws from 4 League games between the teams since Stoke were promoted.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and pick the draw.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Stoke City 1-1 Manchester City
FIXED ODDS BETTING TIP :
I'll back the Draw @ 3.75
