Manchester City vs Rotherham Predictions

Manchester City managed to relight the fire of the Premier League title race on Thursday as they ended Liverpool’s unbeaten league season and slashed the gap at the top of the table to just 4 points. With momentum swinging in their direction, Pep Guardiola will know that their chances of winning the title just improved immeasurably.

The Citizens have plenty of other competitions to consider though. They face Burton Albion in the Carabao Cup next week and have the Champions League knockout stages to look forward to. With that in mind, Guardiola is likely to make vast changes to his starting 11 here in the hopes of keeping everybody’s legs fresh.

That being said, Manchester City’s second string team is still packed with quality. The likes of Kyle Walker, Nicolas Otamendi, Riyad Mahrez, Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ilkay Gundogan, Kevin De Bruyne, and Phil Foden are all likely to take part on Saturday, and most of those would walk into any top flight starting 11.

Of course, this will be a worry to the visiting Rotherham. The Millers managed to start 2019 with a 2-1 win over Preston on Tuesday, but they have plenty of other concerns to deal with. They are only 3 points clear of the relegation zone in the Championship and that win against Preston was their first since the start of November.

By manager Paul Warne’s own admission, he is working with a League One team here as they try to fend off relegation. Now they come up against undoubtedly one of the best teams in world football away from home.

Obviously, a Manchester City win looks highly likely on Sunday, but the bookies are suggesting a mauling that we’re not so sure about. The Citizens’ Carabao Cup campaign has seen them score a relatively modest 6 goals in 3 games, including a comfortable but rather modest 3-0 win at Oxford United.

Only 1 of Manchester City’s last 13 competitive games have seen 5 or more goals scored, and Rotherham haven’t seen that amount of goals since the middle of August. This makes a Manchester City Win and Under 4.5 Goals bet look pretty good value here, along with a comfortable 3-0 win for the hosts.