Manchester City welcome West Bromwich Albion to the Etihad Stadium in Tuesday’s primetime midweek clash from the Premier League’s first midweek round of this season.
Should Wolves defeat Chelsea in Tuesday’s early evening match, Man City could start this match in tenth but victory would see the Citizens climb to sixth temporarily for at least 22 hours.
West Brom meanwhile could climb above Fulham in the relegation zone and move level on points with Burnley, although the Baggies will remain below safety on goal difference unless they were to win by a four goal margin to lift them out of the drop zone.
Team News
Sergio Aguero could return for Man City after sitting out Saturday’s goalless draw at Manchester United due to a bout of gastroenteritis.
Erik Garcia is absent until after Christmas with a knock.
West Brom have no fresh injury concerns to report after Saturday’s 2-1 loss at Newcastle United.
Hal Robson-Kanu (wrist), Matheus Pereira (suspension), Sam Field and Conor Townsend (both knee) remain sidelined.
Stat Attack
- Man City are unbeaten in their last 17 matches against West Brom across all competitions (W16, D1).
- West Brom are winless in their last 11 league visits to the Etihad Stadium (D2, L9).
- In 24 previous Premier League meetings, Man City have scored all six of their penalties whereas West Brom are yet to be awarded a spot kick against the Citizens.
- Ferran Torres has scored once in each of his last two home appearances for City in all competitions.
- Karlan Grant has been substituted on seven occasions for West Brom in the league this season, more than any other Baggies’ player.
Prediction
Despite finding themselves held to a goalless draw on Saturday, City were impressive in how they played out from the defence with pace and players racing into Utd’s box to open up creative attacking play which ultimately were to no avail.
West Brom meanwhile were caught napping at the start against Newcastle which they cannot afford to do here, although they did grow into the game with a stubborn defensive display and Darnell Furlong took advantage of a momentarily defensive lapse from Newcastle even though the Baggies’ defence ultimately made one mistake too many late on.
Goals therefore are a sure bet here and given that City are the Baggies’ bogey team, I genuinely feel that this could be a case of just trying to avoid shipping many goals from the visitors’ perspective as there is no doubt that there will be one winner.
Prediction: Manchester City 2-0 WBA
Result: Manchester City 1-1 WBA