Pep Guardiola used his last conference of the year to reflect on City's success in the last decade, talk about Liverpool, injured players and Everton. He also admitted the reds will most likely win the EPL this season, leaving him to focus on what’s to come in the future.
With Liverpool 14 points ahead of the Citizens, Guardiola is no longer determined to chase for City's fifth title in ten years. Instead, he's interested in finishing this season strong and hoping his team will be ready to compete for bigger trophies next season.
Pep Guardiola: Man City are Team of the Decade
Pep Guardiola says Man City have been the best club since the 2009/10 season not only because they won more trophies but also because they scored the most goals and had the most points. And sure enough, City’s stats of the last decade are beyond belief.
In addition to winning four premier league titles, Man City tallied 818 points from 380 games. By comparison, their closest challengers, Man United, collected 747 points from an equal number of matches.
Goal wise, Man City were on a league of their own. They netted 845 goals, 130 more than both Liverpool and Chelsea. They won ten titles in total; a feat Guardiola believes couldn’t have been possible without the club’s Abu Dhabi owners’ approval.
“When we analyze every single day here, it gives us perspective in what happened in the last ten seasons, especially when the people from Abu Dhabi took over the club and bought good players, (and hired) interesting managers.” Pep told reporters.
Injury Updates: Silva and Stones Back
Man City will kick off 2020 with Aymeric Laporte and Leroy Sane still injured. The defender can walk on grass and could be back early February, but the winger will be out longer. Luckily, Pep could turn on John Stones to bolsters defence now that he's back from injury. David Silva will also be available for selection.
Despite that, Pep says some of his players must prove they need playtime at the training ground to win his trust. Case in point, Joao Cancelo, whom he recently addressed publicly and asked him to show more commitment or leave the club.
Pep was addressing rumours that Cancelo wants to leave City for Valencia in January, only a few months after he joined them from Juventus last summer.
“This player we bought him for many years, not for six months, but what happens, happens,” Pep said. As I said, I don’t know what happens in a few weeks and the players and in the summer we will discuss. If a player wants to leave, it’s simple, the agent has to call the club, arrive at an agreement, and he will leave.”
Preparations for Man United
Having won the tournament in the last two seasons, Pep feels ready to take on Man United at Old Trafford on Tuesday. There’s one problem, though. He has struggled to beat Ole Gunnar Solksjaer’s men in recent days.
Man City lost to United 2-1 when the last met on December 7th. In the Carabao Cup, the two sides last faced each other in 2016, with the red devils taking home the bragging rights. United also won the last time they met City at the semi-finals of the competition, winning 4-3 on aggregates back in 2010.
United will be at home for the first leg, and that gives them an essential advantage over the Citizens. However, Pep has probably already learned from his mistakes and will encourage his squad to watch out for counter-attacks more keenly.
Preparations for Aston Villa
After Man City tackles United at Old Trafford, they will head to Villa Park next. Pep aims to collect all three points in the game, and there’s no reason to think otherwise. Villa have been struggling throughout the season, and they face relegation unless they change their fortunes.
Against that backdrop, the game against Villa should be an easy win for Man City. The Citizens will have played two games mid-week (Port vale and United), but Villa shouldn't pose a problem to them. And with Silva and Stones back, Pep has more options at the back.
Betting for Man City: Odds, Sure (Arbitrage) Bets and Tips
Apart from United’s game, City's game against Port Vale and Aston Villa look like sure victories. And based on the quality of these two sides, the natural prediction is to back City to win both games by significant margins.
Concerning United’s games, bookmakers give Man City the edge at odds 1.83 against United’s 4.50. A draw attracts odds 4.10 on average. Of course, you might get better odds if you compare multiple betting sites.
But in such an important game for both teams, experts propose you look beyond which side wins. Backing both teams to score or the game to end with at least three goals scored at odds 1.96 seems like a smart bet. Similarly, predicting the game to end with two or fewer goals attracts odds 1.87.
Checking Sure Bets
If you feel confused as to whether you should back United or City in the Carabao semi-finals, consider finding sure bets. No, we don't mean the fake tips online cons promise in exchange for money.
Sure, as another name for arbitrage betting, is a tactic professional bettors have been using for decades. It involves finding odds that give you profits no matter which outcome you predict. To illustrate, let’s use the game between AS Roma and Napoli on November 7th as an example.
The hosts had odds 2.62 on William hill, a draw 3.82 and a win for Napoli 2.87 on 1XBET. After using a sure bet calculator; betting £100 on Roma and another £100 on Napoli returned £37 as a profit no matter which team won. Roma won 2-1.
A draw in the match would have voided the sure bet, but there's another way to take care of it. In the same game; betting £100 on each of the three possible outcomes (win, draw or loss) resulted in a profit of 82 cents. It was a small profit, but it guaranteed profits regardless of how the game ended.
Sure bets can help you win 100% of the time. You can check this sure bet calculator to better understand how to profit from arbitrage bets. There are multiple games with sure odds each week. And even though some might not have enormous profits, they guarantee you profits every other time.