Football expert Ryan Elliott brings you two tips for Monday's clash between Man City and Burnley.
After a slightly slow start against Arsenal, Manchester City quickly showed us that they mean business for the rest of the season, despite pretty much nothing to play for in the league.
As for Burnley, they still harbour outside hopes of European football next season, but even if they were totally marooned in mid-table, it’s not Sean Dyche’s style to let things slip at any stage.
It’s generally the case that any of Manchester City’s home fixtures against mid-table sides sees bookies take a somewhat miserly approach – but there’s an angle which I’ve found that looks very generous indeed: a draw/Man City win in the half-time/full-time market, priced at 18/5.
City have won their last four games against Burnley, scoring 15 goals in the process, and yet only three of these goals came in the first-half.
This is a pretty incredible stat in its own right, and it shows that Burnley generally fare well against City in the early exchanges, before being picked off as the game wears on.
I expect it’ll be a similar story on Monday, particularly because City already have 90 minutes in their legs following their 3-0 win over Arsenal last week.
City have gone into the break level on nine occasions this season, while Burnley have seen 13 of their games go into half-time level.
The hosts should (and probably will) win this, but for them to do it via a half-time draw at 18/5 looks mightily generous.
Along these same lines, therefore, I’m also backing the second-half being the highest scoring half, priced at 21/20.
