Preston North End vs Manchester City Odds Preview
09/24/19, 19:45 PM Kick-Off (BST)
2019/20 EFL Cup, Round 1
Manchester City Odds Against Preston North End
Manchester City begins their defense of the EFL Cup away to Sky Bet Championship side Preston North End. City is coming off their biggest ever win in Premier League history, defeating Watford 8-0 on Saturday.
This was always going to be an uphill task for Preston to face the Premier League champions and one of the best teams in the world. To face a City side that just dismantled Watford, scoring five goals in just 18 minutes mind you, will probably go down as their toughest ever match in history.
Preston, however, is in impressive form heading into the match. They sit 3rd in the Championship, one point behind Leeds United in top. Preston has won four of their last five matches and hasn’t lost a game since the third game of the season. Their defense has been stellar in recent weeks, conceding just three goals in their last five matches.
A shining prayer for Preston is that the game is at Deepdale in front of their home fans, where they remain unbeaten in all competitions so far this season. They’ve already progressed through two rounds of the EFL Cup, thrashing Bradford 4-0 and defeating fellow Championship side Hull City on penalties.
Manchester City’s Dominance of English Football
But Manchester City is a completely different kettle of fish and sportsbooks has odds on City winning the match opening at -1200. That is a 92.3% probability of Manchester City defeating Preston North End. Preston’s odds on the other hand of defeating Manchester City open at +1800, according to sportsbooks.
Sportsbooks odds on a tie that would see the introduction of extra time, open at +750.
The EFL Cup is a trophy that Manchester City have dominated in recent years. They’ve won it four times out of the last six years. They are currently the only team in English football history to have won the domestic treble, consisting of the Premier League title, the FA Cup and the EFL Cup, having achieved that feat last season.
City’s ability to keep a squad full of stars happy is one aspect of Pep Guardiola’s management style that is underrated. When fit last season, Gabriel Jesus, Leroy Sane, and Riyad Mahrez, bought for a combined £125 million, were not regular first-team starters and they managed to keep all of them relatively happy. Not losing any of their players to better clubs or clubs who those players think they’ll have a bigger role with, is one of the biggest reasons City have stayed successful.
Clubs like Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, and Arsenal have all lost top players in the last five to seven years that have hampered them and allowed City to get stronger and stronger.
While the atmosphere at Deepdale will be scintillating and the Preston players will be pumped and ready to give their all in the biggest game of their careers, I see nothing but a Manchester City in this game, and a big one at that.
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