An early goal can propel Man City to Capital One Cup glory
Published:Manchester City take on Sunderland for the first silverware of the season at Wembley in the Capital One Cup and a fast start from the favourites can see Manuel Pellegrini’s side lay the foundations for victory.
After getting badly bitten by the underdog in last season’s FA Cup final loss to Wigan, Man City will be in no mood to relinquish their first chance to expel that memory with victory in the Capital One Cup.
Although relegation-threatened Sunderland deserve enormous credit for ousting Chelsea and Manchester United in the competition previously, City’s imperious run to Wembley makes them worthy favourites to lift the trophy at 1/7.
Five straight wins to reach this point, where the title-chasers have scored 19 goals and conceded just twice, is also ample evidence to suggest City’s stars can get the job done in the 90 minutes at odds of 3/10.
Of course, it’s a final and ‘anything can happen’ as it did when Sunderland beat City 1-0 on Weirside in the early throws of the Premier League season, but even on that occassion the Black Cats used all their nine lives – giving City 24 shots at their goal.
As the greater quality outfit, City will look to take the game to Sunderland from the whistle and if they can pounce early doors, then there should only be one outcome as recent trends suggest.
Four of City’s last six wins have seen them register before 17 minutes have elapsed and the 9/4 on offer that the Citizens score in the opening quarter-hour looks tempting as does the 11/4 they are leading after 15 minutes.
Recent history shows that the League Cup finale rarely witnesses a one-sided contest between Premier League teams, though, with four of the last five renditions seeing both teams score while they all of those produced the same 2-1 winning scoreline.
Both teams to score here is a 9/10 shot while a 2-1 win in favour of City can be backed at 9/1.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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