Stoke vs Manchester City Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

Stoke didn’t get off to the best of starts in the Premier League last weekend as they were forced to come from behind against the newly promoted Middlesbrough. New signing Alvaro Negredo put the north easterners in front within the first 15 minutes, and despite Stoke enjoying the majority of the ball they couldn’t find an equaliser until the 67th minute, when Xherdan Shaqiri netted.

The visiting Potters had a few opportunities to win the match but failed to take any of them, and in the end had to settle for a point. They have tough games against Manchester City, Everton and Spurs coming up in the Premier League as well, so this will definitely feel like two points dropped rather than one gained. This draw made it just one win from their five matches since the end of last season.

Stoke are still struggling with a few key injuries, with Jack Butland expected to miss out again and both Stephen Ireland and Ibrahim Afellay out until early next year. They have the strength in depth to deal with these problems, but it would be much more preferable to have those options available to them.

Manchester City were huge favourites to win comprehensively against Sunderland last weekend, but it was a much bigger struggle than most expected. Sergio Aguero got Pep Guardiola off to a great start when he netted a penalty just four minutes into the game, but they struggled to break an organised Sunderland down and the visitors actually created quite a few opportunities.

Jermain Defoe leveled the scores for the Black Cats with 20 minutes remaining, and it took until the 87th minute for Manchester City to grab the winner. It ironically came from new signing Paddy McNair’s own goal, who recently transferred from Man City’s cross-city rivals Manchester United.

Manchester City had none of these issues in the Champions League in midweek though, with them thrashing Steaua Bucharest 5-0 away from home to all but confirm their participation in the group stages of the competition.

Stoke looked to be lacking something going forward last weekend, but I’m still expecting them to be difficult to beat at home. They have only lost two of their last ten meetings at home against Manchester City, and at home in the Premier League they have only lost three of their last 11.

Manchester City have only won two of their last seven away days in the Premier League as well and, considering the struggle they had against an organised Sunderland outfit at the Etihad last weekend, I think odds of 5/4 for a Stoke Win or Draw Double Chance are excellent value for money. I’m going for a 1-1 correct score prediction at 13/2 as well.