After their midweek exertions in the Champions League, Manchester City will return to Premier League action on Saturday evening as they take on relegation-threatened Leicester City at the Etihad.
The Cityzens secured a massive first-leg win in their Champions League quarter-finals tie, beating Bundesliga giants 3-0 at the Etihad on Tuesday courtesy of goals from Rodri, Bernardo Silva and the in-form Erling Haaland.
The win was their ninth consecutive win in all competitions and extended their unbeaten run to 13 competitive games (W11, D2). Pep Guardiola’s side scored 3+ goals in nine of those 13 games, keeping six clean sheets.
Read more: Spezia vs Lazio: Preview and Expert Football Prediction
Given their streak, they remain on course for a historic treble and will come into this tie in confident mode. They currently trail league leaders Arsenal by six points with a game in hand and can be backed to win here, given their strong record against Leicester City.
Pep Guardiola’s men have triumphed in ten of the last 12 PL head-to-head (L2), while a run of ten straight wins at home also puts them as clear favourites.
Meanwhile, Leicester will be desperate to kick off their life under former Aston Villa boss Dean Smith with a win when they visit the Etihad on Saturday. The Foxes recently sacked their FA Cup-winning coach Brendan Rodgers after a terrible run of results that saw them drop to the bottom three after one point from seven games (D1, L1).
The former Aston Villa coach will be hoping to hit the ground running and will also be desperate to make good his boast that the relegation mountain is surmountable for the Foxes this season.
As expected, his side enters this clash as clear outsiders, given that they have lost four of their last eight competitive away games without reply (W2, D1, L5).
Meanwhile, Man City have picked up 28 of 30 available PL points when scoring first at home this season (W9, D1). So Smith will be hoping that they don’t score first–something that looks impossible given that Leicester have kept just one clean sheet in their last 15 competitive games.
That said, we can expect a first-half goal from this tie and a game of over 2.5 goals.
