The first Monday Night Football of the Premier League season takes place at the Etihad Stadium, when Manchester City host Everton, in what should be a juicy battle fitting of the occasion and the coverage it is likely to receive.
Both these sides enjoyed wins on the opening weekend of the campaign and having seen Manchester United lay a marker down on Saturday they now get the chance to answer.
Man City
Manchester City were solid winners against Brighton last weekend, but there is the feeling they will need to be more convincing than that if they are going to win the title this season. That said, you can rarely ask any more than win on the opening day, especially in a potentially tricky match away to a side who just got promoted.
One of the more appealing parts of the performance was their defensive productivity. This is the area that needed to improve and while Pep Guardiola has spent big this summer, nobody was really sure if he had indeed strengthened the backline, or just added more attacking minded players to that unit.
Everton
It was a hard fought win for Everton on the opening day of the season. They edged past Stoke City, but as we saw on Saturday that is not necessarily a terrible result. You would expect the Toffees could have a bit of an advantage here. They have been playing competitive football for a few weeks already.
This could be seen as something of an acid test for the Toffees. They went into the season off the back of something of a spending spree, a spree which continued this week, and with that comes pressure but they should also be significantly better as a result. This may give us an indication of whether they are or not.
Team News
Manchester City will be without Benjamin Mendy and Fabian Delph for this match as it comes too soon for them but Ilkay Gundogan could return from a long-term injury.
Everton may give a debut to Gylfi Sigurdsson even though he may not be match fit, although he may need to come from the bench. Sandro Ramirez missed the Europa League win in midweek but could return here.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
Manchester City are very warm favourites for this match but I wonder if it is a little early in the season for such silly prices to be about. Everton are clearly no mugs. They drew this fixture last year and then walloped the Citizens 4-0 at Goodison Park.
On paper at least, Everton are a stronger side this season, and I must admit a 1.75 goal start is a little insulting. I wouldn’t be completely shocked if City win the match but I don’t see them going mad just yet. Everton have enough about them to stay close if they can’t get anything from the game.
Tips
WON – Back Everton (+1.75AH) to beat Man City for a 4/10 stake at 1.86 with BetVictor
Back them here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017
