Manchester City entertain Aston Villa in a high-stakes Premier League shootout which doubles as a potential dress rehearsal for next month’s FA Cup final. How good is this going to be?
With the title race all over bar the shouting and an open top bus parade around Liverpool, and the relegation battle also settled bar a freak set of results, the chase for Champions League qualification takes centre stage.
Champions elect Liverpool and second-placed Arsenal are certainties to be in next term’s competition but the other three places are up for grabs with Newcastle, City, Chelsea, Nottingham Forest and Villa all in contention.
Celebrating a maximum haul of points when the final whistle blows at the Etihad Stadium will give the victors a major boost in their quest to finish in the top five – enough to qualify this time – and there is little margin for error with a blanket covering the runners.
Since losing to Real Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League and then being beaten at home by Liverpool, City have won six and drawn two of their last nine games but still don’t compare to previous deluxe editions fielded by Pep Guardiola.
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Meanwhile, Villa’s only defeat in the last 11 outings was the 3-1 reversal against Paris Saint-Germain in their Champions League quarter-final first leg in the French capital – and they then exited the competition on their shields following a ferocious fight in Birmingham.
Their most recent outing was the stunning 4-1 home win against a Newcastle side which was flying, and they have the attacking prowess to carve open a City rearguard still susceptible to defensive mishaps.
Marcus Rashford has returned to somewhere near his best form since leaving Manchester United in January to join Villa on loan and has scored three times while providing six assists.
He will be a thorn in Pep’s side and can add to the six goals he has registered against his neighbours in a United shirt – three of them at the Etihad – by netting at any time at 14/5 with Unibet and BetMGM.
Omar Marmoush has stroked in four goals the last six times he has pulled on a City shirt and is 11/8 with those two betting companies and bet365 to hit the net for the hosts.
Villa are big at 3/1 to win with Betfair and Betfred while victory for Unai Emery’s team with both sides scoring is 5/1 with William Hill, BoyleSports, bet365, Betfair and 888Sports.
• Deion Sanders is the only athlete to play in both the Super Bowl and the World Series, winning the Vince Lombardi Trophy with the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers and stepping up to the plate with the Atlanta Braves in the 1992 Fall Classic loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.
He’s now head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes college football team and his son Shedeur Sanders was expected to be the second or third pick in the NFL draft on Thursday after a terrific stint as their quarterback.
However, his stock is falling with the Cleveland Browns and New York Giants looking to plug gaps with more dependable options and he could fall all the way to ninth and the New Orleans Saints. They are expected to move on from veteran passer Derek Carr after the forthcoming season and are 11/8 with William to select Shedeur to be their passer of the future.
• Boxing’s hype machine is being rolled out to release more baloney as Chris Eubank Jr and Conor Benn prepare to face each other in a catchweight contest at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday.
Eubank Jr is decent on his day but isn’t the superstar he is touted as being while Benn is the son of Dark Destroyer Nigel. Brighton-based Eubank is 8/13 to win with William Hill, Coral, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power and Betfair while bet365 go 21/10 his arms are aloft in triumph inside the distance.
The 4/1 chalked up by Paddy Power and Betfair that Eubank Jr wins sometime between the start of round seven and before the bell in round 12 is probably the best bet.