Manchester City host Everton in the English Premier League on Monday night and both teams are looking to build on their opening day wins last weekend. Pep Guardiola guided Manchester City to third place in the Premier League in his first season managing in English football. While it was a decent achievement, the Spaniard is not accustomed to ending a season without a trophy and will be expected to mount a serious title challenge this time around.
Ronald Koeman did about as well as can be expected at Everton last season. The Toffees finished seventh in the Premier League and won the ‘without the big 6’ division comfortably. Everton ended the season 8 points behind Manchester United and 15 points ahead of eighth place Southampton.
Manchester City Form
Manchester City started their 2017/18 Premier League campaign with a 2-0 win at newly promoted Brighton and Hove Albion.
It was a good way to start the season and despite taking time to score the opening goal, the clean sheet which came with the 3 points will be a welcome bonus to Guardiola. Including matches from last season, that’s now 9 matches unbeaten in the Premier League for Manchester City and 5 wins in a row.
It’s also 12 matches unbeaten at home in the league for Manchester City and they have scored 13 goals in their previous 5 home matches.
Everton Form
Everton started the season with a 1-0 home win against Stoke City. With Europa League matches already under their belt prior to the start of the Premier League season, Everton were expected to start strongly at home.
Having lost 3 of their last 4 Premier League games last season it was important for the Toffees to get off to a good start in this campaign. The 1-0 result means they have kept 3 clean sheets in their last 4 Premier League games.
However, Everton failed to win any of their final 8 league games last season and have won only 3 of their last 17 away Premier League games.
Team News
Ilkay Gundogan returned to first team action in a friendly during the week but is unlikely to be risked from the start in this game. It’s always difficult to predict a Guardiola team but expect to see Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Aguero start up-front as they did last weekend.
Everton are still without five first team regulars in the shape of Seamus Coleman, Yannick Bolasie, Ramiro Funes Mori, Ross Barkley and James McCarthy. Record signing Gylfi Sigurdsson will hope to make his debut in this game.
Top Betting Tips
Given Everton’s away record last season and Manchester City’s run of good form at home in the Premier League, the home win seems most likely at 5/18 with Ladbrokes.
The Manchester City defence is yet to be tested fully this season and Everton will hope to put that right in this match. They kept just 5 clean sheets at home last season and conceded in the 1-1 draw between these teams in October last year. Manchester City to win and both teams to score is 21/10 with William Hill.
Wayne Rooney was delighted to get on the score sheet on the return to his boyhood club last weekend and would love to get one over Manchester City have played so long for Manchester United. Rooney is 15/4 with Ladbrokes to score at any time.