Manchester City v Leicester: Home win but Foxes will grab goal

 Manchester City v Leicester: Home win but Foxes will grab goal

Dan Fitch is expecting a more competitive display from Leicester than the slim odds for a Manchester City win would suggest...

Manchester City 1.31 v Leicester 10.50; The Draw 6.40
Sunday 27 September, 16:30
Live on Sky Sports Main Event

City look to improve

Manchester City made a winning start to the new Premier League season last weekend, as they look to regain the crown that they lost to Liverpool in 2019-20.

By their own high standards, it was a poor season for City, with the EFL Cup being their only silverware. They lost in the semi-final of the FA Cup to Arsenal, finished 18 points behind Liverpool in the Premier League and passed up an opportunity to reach the last four of the Champions League when they lost to Lyon in the quarter-finals.

Clearly City have to improve and the signs were encouraging in a 3-1 victory at Wolves last weekend, which was followed by a youthful team beating Bournemouth 2-1 in the EFL Cup on Thursday. Phil Foden was impressive in both matches and at a time when the club have been relatively restrained in the transfer market, the England starlet offers hope of an existing player who can make a difference this season.

Another is Aymeric Laporte, with City much more stable defensively when he's in the team. Laporte is still finding fitness after testing positive for Covid-19 and seems likely to join the injured Joao Cancelo, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Nicolas Otamendi, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva and Sergio Aguero on the sidelines.

Foxes in good form before major test

Leicester are top of the Premier League after two games, but the trip to Manchester City provides a major upgrade on the challenges they've faced so far.

The attacking talent of the Foxes was evident in an opening 3-0 win at West Brom and then again in the 4-2 home victory over Burnley at the weekend. Now comes a real test that could tell us much about Leicester's ambitions this season.

Leicester have already done well to start the campaign with two wins, because they had reason to still be recovering from how last season's campaign fell apart. Prior to lockdown they looked certain to qualify for the Champions League, but a poor run when the season restarted saw them slide down from third to fifth (P9 W2 D3 L4).

Unlike his opposing manager, Brendan Rodgers has a relatively injury free squad to choose from. Only Ricardo Pereira, Filip Benkovic and Wilfred Ndidi are unavailable.

Leicester can be more competitive than odds suggest

Manchester City are the 1.33 favourites, with the draw at 6.40 and Leicester at 10.50.

We have to assume that the home side will win, but they are very short in what promises to be a competitive game. There's every reason to believe that Leicester will score considering the strength of their attack and Laporte's likely absence.

A home win and both teams to score is available at 2.50. It's a bet that has won in three of Manchester City's last four victories.

Goals should flow

Manchester City raced into an early two goal goal lead against Wolves last week. Leicester's match with Burnley also saw two first-half goals, as the teams went into the break at 1-1. You can back over 1.5 first-half goals at 2.10.

At the slightly smaller price of 2.00 you can back Gabriel Jesus to score for Manchester City. At a time when Sergio Aguero is injured, this is a rare opportunity for the Brazilian to get a run of games and try to establish himself as a regular.

Jesus scored against Wolves, as did Foden who is 3.25 and City's penalty taker Kevin De Bruyne, who is 2.80. For Leicester, Jamie Vardy leads the betting at 3.25, having found the net in this fixture last season.