With UEFA hitting Manchester City hard, with a big fine and a two season European football ban, there has been much speculation surrounding the future of the club. Specifically, will manager Pep Guardiola stay beyond when his contract expires? What about the players- are they interested in sticking around when there is no Champions League football to be had?
Thus far, everybody is proverbially saying all the right things. “I’m completely sure of the commitment of our players,” Guardiola said at his press conference today ahead of the trip to Leicester City tomorrow.
“It’s about what they’ve shown for many years, nothing changes, at the end of the season nobody knows what is going to happen. With calm we decide what we want, but for the next three months the commitment will be incredible.”
That said, let’s take a look at what lineup Pep might go with in this one.
Manchester City Starting XI Prediction at Leicester City:
Ederson; Cancelo, Otamendi, Fernandinho, Zinchenko; Gundogan, De Bruyne, Rodri; Mahrez, Aguero, B. Silva
Manchester City at Leicester City FYIs
February 22, 5:30 pm, King Power Stadium
Team news for both sides: go to this link
Starting XI Predictions: Leicester City
Result probability: Leicester City win 19% Draw 23% Manchester City win 58%
Odds via Sportsbet: Leicester City win 4.5 Draw 4.0 Manchester City win 1.67
Leicester Premier League form: WLLWDD
Leicester form (all competitions): LWWLDD
Man City Premier League form: WWDWLW
Man City form (all competitions): DWWLLW
Prediction: Manchester City 2, Leicester City 1
City have won five of the last six in this series, so the smart, safe choice would be to back them here.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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