From the luxury of their own homes, Manchester City watched all the weekend’s top-flight action unfold before their very eyes – and, on the whole, they’ll have no doubt been ecstatic with how it all panned out. The one sour note was seeing their fierce local rivals, Sir Alex’s Manchester United, perform one of their famous smash-and-grab wins away at West Brom.
With Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all dropping points on the opening weekend, Roberto Mancini will be all too aware that Monday’s game with newly-promoted Swansea is a glorious opportunity for his team to steal a march on the title protagonists. Plus, there’s even the incentive of leapfrogging their Manchester rivals in the process.
A two-goal margin of victory – 3/1 with PaddyPower – would ensure City end the opening weekend of the 2011-2012 Barclay’s Premier League above Manchester United, in second – though just five of their thirteen wins at home last season were by two clear goals (or better).
Swansea – a 12/1 shot with Bet365 – are the first visitors to the newly-named Etihad Stadium (for Sponsorship reasons), formerly known as the City of Manchester Stadium, and The Swans will etch their name into Premier League folklore in the process; as the first club to represent Wales in the league’s 21-year history.
And it’ll be a tough baptism of fire for Brendan Rodgers’ side, who played some beautiful football at times last season en route to promotion via the play-offs, but will quickly come to realise that they’ll need a lot more than just silky one-touch moves and the odd mesmerizing run from Scott Sinclair if they’re to finish 17th of better at the end of the term.
No goalkeeper kept more clean sheets in the Premier League last season than Joe Hart for Man City, who marshalled a defence that also boasted the tidiest defensive record (33 from 38 games). Meanwhile, in the same season, Swansea registered 13 goals fewer on their travels than at home (28 in total from their 23 away games), this against teams of Championship calibre.
Efficient and effective, but never emphatic! – that’s Manchester City’s slogan.
Betting Tip: Manchester City to Win to Nil – EVENS PaddyPower
