Manchester City can make it three wins out of their last four games with a win against West Brom, who they host on Tuesday night.
City fought to an uninspiring 0-0 draw against Manchester United in the Manchester derby and will be looking to inject the exciting football we know they’re capable of on show against a West Brom side who sit 19th in the Premier League with just one win in 12 attempts this season.
Man City sit ninth in the table in December in what has been a strange Premier League season. You have Arsenal who sit in 15th and two perennial bottom half teams in Southampton and West Ham United who sit fourth and sixth, respectively.
For City especially, we’ve been looking to see just when they turn it on yet, we are a month away from 2021, and all we’ve seen are spluttering performances from Pep Guardiola’s side.
We’ve reached the point in the season where midweek games come into play in December until February and Pep Guardiola once again vocalized the difficulty in England with the tough schedule.
“In the Premier League so far the teams in Europe play in different conditions to the others and now everyone plays the same amount of games until February. We are lucky to play in Europe but now is the time to play games.
“In my experience, every season we play the Champions League to the latter stages so I am used to playing more part of the season with less recovery than the others.
“We accept because it means you are playing in the bigger stages. Right now, with how it happened all around the world the recovery doesn’t matter as much.”
Manchester City’s opponents West Brom unfortunately look set for an instant return to the Sky Bet Championship with just one win in their last 12 games, having scored just nine goals all season with Burnley (6) and Sheffield United (5) the only sides to score less goals in the Premier League.
West Brom’s only win of the season came against bottom side Sheffield United back in November and will need to work incredibly hard to get any sort of result against Manchester City.
City have had an improved defensive record of late, keeping three consecutive clean sheets; three games Aymeric Laporte did not start.
Laporte has been lauded as City’s best defender and one of the best in the Premier League but the acquisition of record signing Ruben Dias and John Stones’ return to form has left Laporte riding the substitutes bench for the time being with Guardiola saying Laporte must wait for his opportunity.
“It depends on the performance. John is performing well and that’s why he is playing but there are a lot of games. Everyone has to be ready. Be ready and don’t complain much – you may have a chance around the corner.”
I reckon Manchester City win comfortably 3-0 against West Brom.
Odds on a City win open at -1000. Odds on an unprobeable West Brom open at +2000. Odds on a draw between the two sides open at +1000/
