Chelsea vs Manchester City Prediction and Betting Preview | April 12

Premier League Match Day 32 Betting Preview

With the World Cup heading to North America this summer, The GoldSheet will be ramping up its soccer coverage over the next few weeks. WagerTalk handicapper and GoldSheet’s featured writer Bruce Marshall shares his thoughts on how Sunday’s Chelsea vs Manchester City clash in the English Premier League will shake out.

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Chelsea’s Current Form

Are Chelsea backers deluding themselves into thinking all is well (as many of them apparently do) after their team put seven goals past hopelessly outmanned Port Vale in the FA Cup last weekend?

Advancing to the FA Cup semis is fine, but we suggest preceding results tell a far different story, as in the four matches prior to the destruction of Port Vale, Liam Rosenior’s troops were outscored a cumulative 12-2 while losing each match as the wheels started to feel like they were coming off at Stamford Bridge.

Make no mistake, Rosenior, contract or not, is under pressure if the Blues can’t make it into the Champions League (and sitting sixth in the EPL table at the moment, they wouldn’t). Moreover, 7-0 over Port Vale doesn’t obscure the fact that midfield ace Enzo Fernandez remains on suspension after talking about his future and saying he would like to live in Madrid (Real Madrid and Atleti surely listening).

Remember, it was Fernandez who scored a stoppage-time equalizer in the prior match vs. City at the Etihad on January 4, a 1-1 draw in the limbo period after Enzo Maresca’s abrupt departure on New Year’s and the appointment of Rosenior.

Now, with Man U and Aston Villa now several lengths ahead, Chelsea’s chance for the Champs League is to pip fading Liverpool for fifth (the EPL almost surely gets five Champions League places next season), but Rosenior’s side has hardly looked ready to overtake anyone not at the bottom of the Championship (like Port Vale) in the past month.

Manchester City’s Current Form

Meanwhile, Man City still believes it has a chance to collar Arsenal at the top of the EPL table despite trailing the Gunners by nine, though with a match in hand and a date vs. Mikel Arteta’s side on deck for next Sunday, City can theoretically take care of six of those nine points by itself.

Pep Guardiola’s side seems to have shifted gears, however, winning the Carabao Cup over Arsenal and destroying Liverpool 4-0 in the FA Cup quarters last weekend, with Erling Haaland apparently back in top goal-scoring form after his hat-trick against Liverpool, and midfielder Rayan Cherki, now back in the fold, making positive contributions in the Liverpool win.

Chelsea vs Manchester City Prediction

We are going to out of hand reject the Port Vale result as anything of a buy signal for Chelsea, instead focusing on the previous four matches when the team looked slow in defense and ponderous in attack, and City on the straight win at +115 looks very good value to us and a definite top recommendation here.

We might just stop there, but if looking for some supplemental punts, Halftime/Fulltime with City would return +230 or thereabouts, while an alternative total “over” 3.5 goals can be found at +125/130.

There are also various Haaland props to consider beyond him merely scoring, priced a bit unappealingly at -138; either Haaland or Omar Marmoush to score first would net +187, not bad value. For a real flyer, a 3-1 Man City correct scoreline returns +4000.

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