Home comforts to re-ignite Man City title charge
Published:With Manchester United taking up the mantle at the pinnacle of the Premier League, Manchester City desperately need to beat Sunderland at 1/4 on Saturday to keep their title hopes alive.
Sunderland scored a shock victory over City at the Stadium of Light earlier in the season, in a match that took place when the visitors were the league leaders, and the Black Cats are 11/1 for another victory here.
It is 9/2 about the draw in the match, and that would be a welcome result for the travelling side, but nowhere near good enough for the hosts.
City are now 9/4 second-favourites to win a maiden Premier League title, and with Sir Alex Ferguson stepping up the mind games in his pursuit of a 20th league accolade with United, the visit of Sunderland represents the perfect chance for the Citizens to re-assert themselves on the title race.
In other circumstances, the 1-1 draw that Roberto Mancini’s side recorded away to Stoke last week would be seen as a decent result, but such has been the ruthless nature of their Manchester neighbours’ recent performances, it simply wasn’t good enough.
They can improve on that result with a victory at Eastlands at the weekend though, and build on an extraordinary record that has seen them claim maximum points in all 15 of their Premier League home games this season.
14 years have passed since the travelling Black Cats last recorded a win away to Manchester City, and they have lost on each of their five visits to Eastlands.
The most regularly occurring scoreline in that time has been 1-0, and that outcome can be backed at 8/1 here.
