West Brom vs Man City – Hawthornes edge for home side
Published:West Brom may have to remember their scoring boots if they harbour hopes of reaching the fourth round of the Carling Cup with a victory over Manchester City.
First goalscorer
City have a fine track record of finding the target on the road in the Carling Cup, doing so in their last nine games in the competition away from Eastlands.
However, with Mario Balotelli and Emmanuel Adebayor injured and Carlos Tevez likely to be handed a rest, Roberto Mancini is left with a shortage of options in attack.
Jo scored in the recent Europa League win at Red Bull Salzburg and is 9/2 to score first, while Roque Santa Cruz is 5/1 should he be handed a rare start.
Roberto Di Matteo’s chief priority at West Brom this season is to avoid relegation to the Championship, so it remains unclear whether he will field his strongest side against Manchester City.
If he does then Peter Odemwingie has scored in two of his three appearances at the Hawthornes since moving to West Brom and is 7/1 to open the scoring.
Match Odds
West Brom have won their last three home matches against Manchester City and are 10/3 to extend this winning run to four games.
Meanwhile, they have scored twice in each of these victories, which could make the 14/1 on a 2-0 win or the 11/1 on a 2-1 success particularly tempting.
Furthermore, this is only City’s third appearance in the third round of the competition in six years and they have been eliminated by a fellow Premier League team in two of the last three seasons.
West Brom’s form in the Carling Cup is not much better as they have only made it to round four once in the last six years and have been dumped out by Premier League opposition three times in the last five seasons.
Manchester City are 5/6 to beat West Brom in the 90 minutes and 4/9 to qualify. See the full West Brom vs Manchester City match betting market.
