Manchester City Seeks English Premier League Title On Final Day Of Action

For Manchester City, the task at hand is a relatively simple one–win Sunday’s game against bottom of the table Brighton & Hove Albion and they claim their second straight English Premier League title. Should they fail to claim full points from this contest they open the door for Liverpool to claim the championship. Liverpool will be in action at home against Wolverhampton on Sunday. The risk here for Manchester City is for them to look past Brighton simply because the home side has only recently earned safety from relegation. They need to take all three points from this contest or else their fate will be bound to Liverpool’s match at Anfield.

Pep Guardiola’s team viewed the home match against Leicester City as the most significant challenge between themselves and the Premiership title and although it wasn’t pretty Vincent Kompany’s goal gave them the margin they needed. Now they’re in a position where they can secure a win by ‘playing within themselves’. City has been a nasty opponent on the Premiership road this season with a record of 13-2-3. They’ve also won 13 straight EPL games including 6 straight away. They’ve been particularly effective on defense during their travels allowing only one goal total in their previous six away victories.

Brighton is in the proverbial ‘nothing to lose’ position but it’ll take more than a sound attitude to deny Manchester City. Brighton has only scored three goals in their last six games at home with a win and a draw. Manchester City has held them scoreless in three of the previous four meetings between the two teams. City beat Brighton 2-0 at Etihad Stadium earlier this season and defeated them 1-0 in FA Cup play. In their last visit to Amex Stadium early last season Manchester City took a 2-0 win. Brighton has not won a match in any competition since early March. Manchester City will have a couple of significant injuries to address. Kevin De Bruyne ‘could play’ according to Pep Guardiola but midfielder Fernandinho has been ruled out.

From the sound of it, Guardiola and his City charges are in a good frame of mind heading into this crucial game. The manager says that he won’t be paying attention to the Liverpool contest since assuming that Manchester City ‘takes care of business’ it won’t be an issue: “We have the chance to become champion if we win our game and that is what we have to do.” He says that there is no apparent pressure or lack of focus on the part of his players either. He does understand the risk of complacency: “In one game anything can happen. One mistake from our side, one incredible performance from the other side, one mistake from the referees can decide the title. That’s why we have to be more precise, be better and try to win the game.”

There’s no reason to think that they won’t. Given the team’s tight games in recent fixtures there’s no way to lay the handicap price with Manchester City though they are completely capable of covering the goal impost in the right set of circumstances. The best wagering positions appear to be those which leverage City’s strong defensive play away from home of late. If you wanted to get cheeky you could try some of the ‘exact score’ props like City 1-0 (+800), City 2-0 (+600), City 3-0 (+600) and City 4-0 (+850). These look to be the best value positions:

BET MANCHESTER CITY TO KEEP A CLEAN SHEET -135
BET MANCHESTER CITY/BRIGHTON BOTH TEAMS TO SCORE NO -130
BET MANCHESTER CITY/BRIGHTON UNDER 3.5 -126
BET MANCHESTER CITY TO WIN TO NIL -120

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