EPL Odds: Man City take on last-place Hull
Hull City (+1000) v Manchester City (-283), Draw (+490)
This Monday (December 26), Manchester City (11-3-3, 36 points) will travel to KC Stadium to take on bottom-ranked Hull City (3-3-11, 12 points) in the 18th fixture of the English Premier League.
Hull and Manchester City sit at opposite ends of the table and are fighting for very different things. City are hoping to claw their way back to the top of the table after consecutive losses to Chelsea and Leicester City. Hull are just hoping for three points to lift them out of the relegation zone.
Manchester City are back on track after their win against an ailing Arsenal side last week. The Citizens came from a goal down in the first half to beat the Gunners 2-1, grabbing goals from Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling. The second half showed a City side that is capable of winning the league.
When they are at their best, Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva are able to control the game in the style manager Pep Guardiola is famous for. As a team, they are able to dictate the pace of the game and control it through possession. But City have struggled to do so consistently this season, compared to Guardiola’s former Barcelona and Bayern Munich teams.
Without their star striker Sergio Aguero, Leroy Sané and Raheem Sterling are playing upfront. But instead of playing one of them as a pure striker, they both play wider positions and coordinate more directly with the center midfielders. It’s a system that worked well against Arsenal and, since Aguero is suspended for one more game, it’s probably what they will play against Hull.
Hull are the only Premier League team to be winless in the last six rounds. With just three wins this season, they sit at the bottom of the table with only 12 points. Unless something changes, the newly promoted squad is going straight back down to the Championship.
Former Leeds United man Robert Snodgrass is their best hope at the moment, with five of the club’s 14 goals (fewest in the EPL). Not only is Hull the league’s lowest-scoring side, they also have the worst goal differential at -22.
Despite the slump in Manchester City’s form and the suspension and injuries of a few key players, they should not have a problem overcoming Hull.
Pick: Manchester City (-283)
Photo credit: “Tom Ince” by dom fellowes CC BY-SA 2.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0], via Flickr.
Don Aguero is a man of many talents, writing about nearly anything you can put odds to. Don has been writing for SportsBettingDime since 2015, covering sports, entertainment and politics. You name it, he's covered it! He is also a steadfast West Ham fan, and has learned to embrace that suffering.
