Manchester City v Swansea: Improved Swans can trouble Pep’s City
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On New Year’s Day Swansea sat bottom of the Premier League with just three wins from 19 games. But as they head to Manchester City, there is renewed hope and optimism within the Swans’ camp.
With three wins in four games since appointing Paul Clement as manager, the managerial move has been a resounding success thus far for the Welsh outfit.
That doesn’t stop us pricing Swansea up as 12/1 outsiders, but it’s worth noting they were 16/1 when they headed to Liverpool – and look what happened there.
Man City are the 2/9 favourites, and Pep Guardiola’s men have bounced back since that 4-0 hammering at Everton.
The arrival of Gabriel Jesus has been a timely boost, but the 4-0 win over West Ham in midweek said as much about the Hammers’ defensive problems than City’s attacking prowess.
Simply put, we should expect a much sterner fight from Clement’s Swans this weekend.
City haven’t been terribly convincing at the Etihad either – winning just six of their 11 fixtures.
Indeed, only three sides in the top ten have picked up fewer home points than the Sky Blues this season.
They allowed Tottenham to claim a 2-2 draw last time out, while Burnley were only edged 2-1 last month.
Few will be surprised to see Pep’s Citizens claim three points, but they could be pushed hard, and Swansea look well priced at 5/4 on the +2 handicap.
Sergio Aguero was dropped to the bench for Wednesday’s win, and with reports suggesting Guardiola is unhappy with the Argentine’s off-the-ball work-rate, it may be worth swerving the striker to score first at 12/5.
Man of the moment Jesus is 13/5 to open the scoring, while at 6/1, Yaya Toure could be worth a punt.
The Ivory Coast ace has been influential in this fixture, netting four goals and two assists in six games against the Swans.
The visitors will have been hugely boosted after keeping hold of Fernando Llorente and Gylfi Sigurdsson, and if Swansea are to cause an upset, you can be assured at least one of these two will feature.
Llorente is 12/1 to break the deadlock, with 10/3 available on the ex-Juventus man anytime. And plenty might fancy dead-ball expert Sigurdsson at 14/1 first and 4/1 at any point.
While City looked excellent in midweek, West Ham were equally bad, and that’s not something you can apply to the rejuvenated Swansea right now, who might just make this very difficult for Pep and co.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
