MAN CITY head to Swansea for an FA Cup 5th Round showdown on Wednesday night. Daniel McCulloch (@DMcCulloch1984) shares his favourite fancies.
Swansea vs Manchester City | Wednesday 10th February 2021, 17:30 | BT Sport
Manchester City are on an excellent run at the minute, winning their last 14 matches in league and cup and only conceded four goals in that time frame.
The Citizens produced a brilliant second half display to overwhelm Liverpool at the weekend, but while they are expected to win this tie, I wonder where it will feature in the priority list given that they still have another five fixtures in February alone after this trip to South Wales.
City have played reasonably strong sides in previous rounds in this competition – with their talisman Kevin De Bruyne starting in the 3rd Round against Birmingham and the likes of Benjamin Mendy, Riyad Mahrez and Phil Foden all starting in victory over Cheltenham in the previous round.
Youngsters Tommy Doyle and Taylor Harwood-Bellis started in that win over the League Two side and while the latter won’t feature at The Liberty Stadium as he is now on loan at Blackburn, I expect quite a few changes given that City have just come off a trip to Anfield and face Tottenham on Saturday before a trip to Goodison in midweek.
Swansea have made changes for cup games themselves in previous rounds but I expect a stronger side here as manager Steve Cooper will surely want to gauge exactly where his side are in comparison to Pep’s men as their ultimate ambition this season will be to secure a return to the Premier League. They are currently third, sitting two points off top with a game in hand and I expect a solid show from the home side.
City were actually 1-0 down to Cheltenham entering the final ten minutes and this will be a tougher task. I think they are likely to ultimately win, but will take a chance on Swansea +1.5 at 27/20.
I did consider City to win by a single goal, which is available at 16/5 in places. However, doubling up would make it a rather tough watch, so I will simply take Bet365’s 27/20 on Swansea to either avoid defeat or lose by a single goal.
Best Bets
Swansea vs Manchester City – Swansea +1.5 Asian Handicap (27/20 Bet365)