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City of Manchester Stadium
Saturday, 7 November 2009
Kick-off: 3pm

After all of their off-season summer spending, Mark Hughes’ Manchester City should now be settled into a team with an identity. The Blue side of Manchester are sitting in fourth place in the league, and after a promising start to the campaign, they hit a vein of form which saw them strike the silver of drawing matches. City are eight points leaders Chelsea with a game in hand, and that is a marked improvement over past seasons, where they have been left a long way behind in the dust of Manchester United. The overwhelming balance is shifting for sure, but having drawn nearly as many games as they have won, is the fine line between pushing for the title and simply trying to break into the top four. A run of four league draws is something which is not good enough for a top team, and it will be making the expectant fans at the City of Manchester Stadium, a little edgy and impatient.

At the moment, City are definitely at the latter stage of their learning curve, and they would have silenced a lot more critics if those draws had been turned into victories. Still, they are on the verge of becoming a really good, consistent and strong side, which has only lost once in the Premier League all season, which is more than can be said to Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea above them, who have all lost two games each. Saturday’s fixture for the light blues, should be one that they should close out with a little flair and conviction in their own abilities. With the England game coming up on November 14th, Mark Hughes will want to go into the Premier League break on a strong note.

Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor who have been suffering from injury woes, are likely to be back for the starting eleven, and they are key in pushing Manchester City forward. Adebayor is a strong presence up front, and is going to be the main source of goals for them. Hughes will be welcoming the short international break, as it will give time for Robinho to get fully fit and finally starting earning his salary this season. Even with the break for the World Cup qualifying play-offs, and the England v Brazil friendly, Manchester City have an away friendly fixture against the United Arab Emirates pencilled in for Wednesday.

Saturday’s opponents Burnley have been struggling to pick points up the road, and they have left empty handed on all of their five away matches. Although having pretty much a full squad to choose from, it will be an uphill struggle to go to Eastlands and take points from a City defence, which is proving to be strong and positive in handling opposition. City do have a couple of injury concerns, notably that of Roque Santa Cruz and of Wayne Bridge, but they should be bolstered enough by Adebayor’s return, in linking up with Craig Bellamy and Carlos Tevez up front, to bully their way past the Burnley defence which has conceded 17 goals on their travels.

Manchester City to win: 7/19 at Coral
Draw: 4/1 at Paddy Power
Burnley to win: 10/1 at Bet365

Betting Advice: City still have not figured out the way to score as many goals as they would like, despite being quite an offensive side. This could be a good game to express themselves, and see how expansive they can be. They should have more than enough quality to completely overrun opposition like Burnley, and they probably will.
Manchester City to win 3-0: 8/1 at 888Sport

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

Such has been the strides forward City have made from the shadows of their domineering City rivals, that if they were to win their two games in hand over current leaders (after Saturday) Chelsea, then they would be on level points. On paper City boss Mark Hughes has collected together a team full of attacking potential, yet their goals total is a lot less than the four teams above them in the Premier League. They are not as free scoring on the pitch as they are on paper, but they have lost only one match this season and that is where they can draw a lot of strength from. Their defence has been standing up really well.

So that will be bad news for Fulham as they have scored fewer that what the leaders Chelsea have conceded in 10 matches. Fulham are currently in 13th position in the league, but that could be a little flattering as they are only three points ahead of 18th placed Hull. Being involved in the UEFA Super League, they are a couple of games behind other teams around them in the league, but they need to start finding a source of goals from somewhere. They gave a good account of themselves in their midweek European fixture, when they held the illustrious Italian club Roma to a 1-1 draw. Fulham have been doing better in Europe than they have in the league, largely by resting senior players who are shouldering the burden of Premier League survival.

Manchester City blew two points last week when they could only manage a draw at Wigan in the league. Kolo Toure and Craig Bellamy, one of City’s joint top scorers, were missing from that game, but should be back to take their places in the starting eleven on Sunday if late fitness tests go well. There was hope that Robinho would be seeing some action soon, but he has suffered a setback in his injury recovery. The Cottagers have a couple of injury worries, as Simon Davis and striker Andrew Johnson will both be missing from the line up, and top scorer (with two league goals) Danny Murphy is a doubt too.

This is the start of a run of games against teams which City will be expected to win, furthering their charge into the Big Four. One reason why Fulham struggle so much, is that they are not good travellers. In four seasons they have only managed eight wins on the road, but strangely have had the most success at Manchester City. One of those things which may influence a bet, but it is hard to see anything other than a home win on Sunday, as City have won all of their home games this season, and are running on six consecutive home wins from the end of last season.

Manchester City to win: 5/11 at Coral
Draw: 10/3 at Skybet
Fulham to win: 15/2 at Skybet

Betting Advice: The power of Adebayor, Tevez and Bellamy (if he plays) should be more than enough to take down Fulham. City desperately want the win in order to show the Big Four that they really do mean business after all of their summer spending. There is no better way to show it than by putting another three points on the board. Fulham just do not have the scoring power at the moment, and the City defence is well organised. Could be worth doubling up a City win with an Arsenal win on Sunday.
Manchester City to win 3-0: 9/1 at Bet365