Man City v Cardiff Betting Tips: Jesus to star in City goalfest?

Betting preview and odds for Premier League match

Manchester City will return to the top of the Premier League with victory over Cardiff City at the Etihad Stadium tonight.

Pep Guardiola’s men are currently two points behind Liverpool at the summit. A full haul live on Sky Sports Main Event against the travel-sick Bluebirds will see them leapfrog the Reds at the top.

Can they make it eight wins on the spin in the top-flight? Or will Neil Warnock’s men put a spanner in the works? You can find out from 7:45pm tonight.

Head-to-Head

Cardiff don’t tend to enjoy their trips to Manchester. The Bluebirds have won just once in 25 visits to Maine Road and the Etihad Stadium – a 2-1 success in October 1961.

Guardiola and Warnock have gone head-to-head just the twice. The former holds the advantage over the latter with a 2-0 FA Cup success in 2018 and 5-0 league win earlier in the season.

Sergio Aguero, Bernardo Silva, Ilkay Gundogan and a Riyad Mahrez brace sealed the points in September.

Likely XIs

Aguero’s absence through injury should allow Gabriel Jesus into the starting XI. He’ll be flanked by Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane on either side.

Fernandinho and John Stones could also earn recalls in place of Gundogan and Nicolas Otamendi, while Oleksandr Zinchenko is expected to remain at left-back.

Bluebirds manager Warnock has threatened to play the reserves following Sunday’s controversial defeat to Chelsea. But that’s unlikely to happen.

Instead it should be a 4-2-3-1 set-up with Harry Arter and Aron Gunnarsson shielding the back-four behind Josh Murphy, Victor Camarasa and Junior Hoilett. Kenneth Zohore should get the nod in an unenviable lone front role.

Key Battles

Recent clashes between these two have been typified by two things. Guardiola’s men being too quick and technical and the Bluebirds attempting to boot the Sky Blues up in the air.

Tonight’s match should follow a similar pattern, with Sterling and Sane expected to give the visiting full-backs all sorts of problems. Jesus’ presence should also give the hosts a much better physical presence going forward too.

The Bluebirds won’t get many chances at the Etihad. But visiting sides have caught City cold on the break this season, and Cardiff will attempt to do the same through Murphy and Hoilett.

Match Odds

There’s not much point in backing Man City at 1/16. So it’s the home win and goals market we’re tipping up, with City available at 27/20 to Win with Over 4.5 Goals in the match.

8/15 shot Jesus will shoulder the goalscoring burden. The Brazilian has been a bit-part player this season but still has 17 goals to his name. He’s 5/2 to Score 2 or More.

Sterling has also been in good form for club and country and is 13/5 in the same market, while City are priced at 29/10 to score inside the opening 10 minutes.

Cardiff are 40/1 to win the match, with the Draw at 14/1.

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All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.