EPL Predictions: Manchester City to sweep aside woeful Stoke City?

Arsenal have been poor lately and Thursday’s win over AC Milan was a nice way to go about changing the form, however I think they were fortunate in that Milan set up in a very defensive manner, typical of Italian football teams, Premier League teams don’t tend to be as tidy at the back and Watford should push them harder.

Watford have beat Arsenal in the last two meetings, one of those wins coming at the Emirates. I still think Arsenal are the most likely winners today, but I’m going to stick my neck out and go for a score draw.

There hasn’t been a competitive draw between these two sides since December of 1984 in what was then Division One.

 

Bournemouth v Tottenham (Prediction 0-3)

Bournemouth head into this without a loss in their last five Premier League home games and Tottenham have form to match as they haven’t lost in their last five Premier League away games (both W3 D2).

These sides have only met on six occasions in competitive history, Bournemouth’s only win coming back in the FA Cup of 1957, a time when they plied their trade under the name of Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic.

Since then, they’ve met five times in the Premier League (from 2015-2017) with Spurs holding the upper hand. They’ve only failed to beat Bournemouth once, a 0-0 draw in October 2016 at the Vitality Stadium.

On three occasions Spurs have beat Bournemouth by three goals or more.

I’m backing them to do so again today, with them in no mood to mess about having been knocked out of the Champions League by Juventus in midweek, they must focus on finishing as high as possible whilst challenging for the FA Cup trophy. This is a nice game for them to use as a rebound.

 

Monday

Stoke v Manchester City (Prediction 0-2)

You don’t need me to tell you about the form of Manchester City this season, the runaway leaders have set about walking their way to lifting the title with very little threat from their rivals.

I’m not a fan of the way they play nor am I a fan of Pep Guardiola but I cannot lie to myself and pretend they aren’t doing a damn great job, because they are. It’s when and not if they win the title, it has been that way for a long time. I don’t think Stoke are even capable of delaying the day they do so on.

Since Mark Hughes’ sacking, Stoke have managed to keep goals conceded to a minimum and I think they’ll do a lot better than they have done in recent memory against City. Three of the last four meetings have seen City score 4 or more, including a 7-2 win back in October.

City will be too good for Stoke tomorrow though, a 2-0 win in my opinion.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Written by Jordan Hackett

Follow Jordan on Twitter @Devildart180

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