Birmingham v Manchester City – Sunday Premier League

Birmingham City play hosts to Manchester City on Sunday afternoon’s Premier League kick off, with the Midlands club looking for a win which would push them away from the relegation zone. Sitting 15th out of twenty teams, will be making the Blues supporters a little edgy at the moment, even at this early stage of the season. Last weekend’s 2-1 victory over the rising Sunderland was a huge result for them, and now they need to built upon that success to continue to climb towards the safety of the middle of the table.

Manchester City have a chance to push their way into the top four by chalking one up in the win column. They have gotten into a habit of drawing fixtures in the league though, something which will be frustrating to boss Mark Hughes after all of the summer investments that were made at Eastlands. While definitely looking in better shape than they have done for some seasons, they have fallen short too often in being able to kill of teams. But will Tottenham, Liverpool and Aston Villa all failing to pick up wins on Saturday, it does allow City to close within one point of third placed Arsenal, and still maintain a game in hand over them.

City unleashed their forward power in their midweek Carling Cup victory over Scunthorpe, where they ran out 5-1 winners. After missing through injury for that match, Kolo Toure and Martin Petrov should reclaim their places in the stating eleven, as the blue side of Manchester look for something to cheer. After suffering a run of injuries, City are almost back to full strength, with only Robinho the big name to still be sitting on the sideline through injury. They could certainly use his force and creativity to help turn one point into three, and it will not be long before the Brazilian is fit enough to start roaming the pitch in a City shirt.

Birmingham City have recently been taken over by Carson Yeung, who has promised a lot of investment come the January transfer window. Until that time, Birmingham will need to scrap and fight tooth and nail to get all the points they can. They operate with a back four which is not a cohesive unit at the moment, and that is an area which boss Alex McLeish needs to have been working on, ahead of the visit of Manchester City, who will start with Craig Bellamy, Adebayor, Carlos Tevez and Shaun Wright-Phillips. While the back four has looked a little rickety at times, Birmingham are also lacking in goals scored, having only found the back of the net eight times so far this season in the league. Few goals makes victories hard to come by.

Birmingham have enjoyed some recent success in the past seasons, as they have seen off the challenge of Manchester City three times out of the last four attempts. But with the victory over Sunderland being Birmingham’s first home victory of the season, it could be a positive thing to build upon. Form comes in streaks, such as bottom club Portsmouth showed, backing up their Carling Cup win, with a thumping 4-0 league victory over Wigan. The Blues will be looking to the same against City, using the Sunderland victory, which entailed keeping a potent strike force at bay for the large part, as a springboard to leap up the league.

Birmingham to win: 7/2 at SkyBet
Draw: 13/5 at Bet365
Manchester City to win: 17/20 at William Hill

Betting Advice: Despite have a penchant for drawing games lately, Manchester City should have enough in the tank to dominate games like this. The difference in class between them and neighbours Manchester United is still clear, even though it may be closing. If this were United, you would have no trouble backing them for a win, be it a solid one or a hard fought one. City however, still look like an unknown quantity, which their three drawn games in a row have proved. Their romping Carling Cup victory though, should have instilled a little more belief in their game, and they cannot afford to lose more ground by not taking advantage of teams around them failing to win on Saturday. Mark Hughes should be pressing this point home.
Manchester City to win 2-1: 8/1 at SkyBet