Manchester City vs Sunderland Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

After it was announced in the later stages of last season that Manuel Pellegrini would be unceremoniously moved on at the end of the season, the whole country has been waiting for the arrival of Pep Guardiola.

The former Barcelona man has won an incredible 21 trophies since taking charge of Barcelona in 2008, but there are questions about his ability to rebuild a team. He inherited the most talented club team of all time when he took the reigns at Barcelona, and when he finally moved on he took over a Bayern Munich side who had won the quadruple the season before he joined.

Now he faces to task of rebuilding an ageing Manchester City squad, and he’s wasted no time in getting to work. He has spent over £150 million on new arrivals so far, including highly rated youngsters such as Gabriel Jesus and Leroy Sane and long-term transfer target John Stones. Saturday will be the first time we get to see these talented youngsters in competitive action.

Pre-season hasn’t gone as well as Guardiola would have liked though. They lost to Bayern Munich before their Manchester derby in the ICC was cancelled. They then drew 1-1 with Borussia Dortmund and beat them on penalties before losing to Arsenal, but they will need to show more than that if they are to challenge for the title this season.

Sunderland have also ended up with a new manager, although this wasn’t entirely by choice. Sam Allardyce saved the Black Cats from relegation last season as Sunderland went their last six Premier League games of the season unbeaten, sending North East rivals Newcastle down to the Championship by a two point margin.

However, after England’s disastrous Euro 2016 campaign the national team were on the lookout for a new manager, and Allardyce’s performance at Sunderland got him the job. David Moyes has been brought in as his replacement and to be fair it could be a very good appointment. Prior to his Manchester United failures Moyes did very well at Everton, and he will now be looking to do the same sort of job with the perennial relegation candidates.

Pre-season has gone fairly well for Sunderland, with them beating Hartlepool, Rotherham, Stade Nyonnais, and Dijon before draws against Montpellier and Borussia Dortmund. There hasn’t been much in terms of transfer action, but that will probably suit a Sunderland side who struggled for togetherness and team spirit before Allardyce stepped in.

The bookies have got Pep-fever it seems and are heavily favouring the hosts for this game. Manchester City are favourites in my opinion, but odds of 1/5 are far too short. The new look Manchester City haven’t looked particularly good in pre-season and are currently without a win in 90 minutes in seven matches. I’m expecting it to take a bit of time for the new players to gel in to the system.

Sunderland, on the other hand, are unbeaten in 12 matches across the board, with seven of them being victories. David Moyes knows how to set a team up to avoid defeat, and I think odds of 7/2 for Sunderland to get something from this match are very valuable. I’m backing a Sunderland Win or Draw Double Chance at 7/2 along with a 1-1 correct score prediction at 12/1.