Back ‘the beast’ at boosted odds to end his Man City goal drought

You can’t keep a good man down as the saying goes, or in this case a good beast. Having enjoyed a prolific first season in English football it’s fair to say Manchester City striker Alvaro Negredo has toiled in front of the onion bag of late.

Having scored 23 goals from 33 appearances in all competitions for his new club and earning the adoration of the Man City faithful in the process, the Spain international has now endured a nine-game barren spell.

However, the man who was scoring for fun earlier in the campaign is certainly overdue one and having put himself in all the right places to score in City’s latest rout of Fulham, missing by inches on one occasion, that goal feels imminent.

And what better venue than Old Trafford in a vital Manchester derby to jump back on the goal-scoring wagon, especially as Negredo has seen his odds of 6/1 extended to 7s to break the deadlock with Ladbrokes.

With Edin Dzeko a doubt as he nurses a snivelly nose and Sergio Aguero still sidelined, there’s every chance that Manuel Pellegrini puts his faith in the sizeable centre forward to lead the City line again.

If Negredo is to turn the goal-scoring tap back on against United, he certainly has decent form in setting a game’s scoring wheels into motion.

Of the last five games Negredo beat the opposition goalkeeper, four represented the first goal of the game.

Two of those strikes arrived within the opening quarter-hour of the match, while he’s actually bagged four times from his last five away games in all comps.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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