12th of February 2010 10:52 AM
England, FA Cup
VS 
Saturday, February 13th, 2010 – 17:15 GMT
Manchester City
- Roberto Mancini can be expected to field a strong side as City have a real chance of winning this competition, especially now that three of the TOP4 are out;
- The Citizens won five straight home games under the new boss without too much effort and one of those was the 2:0 convincing win over Stoke;
- Midweek win over Bolton left them well placed for Champions League spot and there were encouraging displays from Adam Johnson and Patrick Vieira;
- Joleon Lescott could make his first start since he got injury in place of Kolo Toure;
- Craig Bellamy could return to the starting line-up, while Nedum Onuoha, Martin Petrov and Shaun Wright-Phillips are also pushing for starting place;
- If City can win this fixture they will be my favorites to go to the end and a similar result to their Premier League clash in December seems likely to me.
Stoke City
- Stoke will be inspired by their win over Arsenal in the last round and if they can take this game to a replay they will have a great chance at the Britannia Stadium;
- They are unbeaten in 2010 in all seven matches and Stoke have a good run in FA cup so far, scoring six goals in latest two games against York and Arsenal;
- Tony Pulis has no fresh injury worries , but probably he will give a chance to new signing Asmir Begovic and players like Ricardo Fuller, Liam Lawrence,Danny Pugh, James Beattie and Salif Diao;
- He may well rest his top players in preparation for another Premiership clash with City on Tuesday night at the Britannia Stadium;
- Considering the attacking potential of City have, the visitors probably will have to defend in numbers if they are to avoid a heavy defeat.
MY PREDICTION CITY TO WIN WITH -1.5 AH with possible result 4-1
FINAL SCORE 1-1
11′ [1 – 0] S.W. Phillips
57′ [1 – 1] R. Fuller
BEST ODDS for 1 -1.5 AH –2.35 from BET 365
SIMILAR BETTING TIPS:
