Man City v Bolton Preview

Two defeats in three league games has put an unwelcome temporary halt to Manchester City’s designs on the coveted fourth league spot. Spirited displays by Everton and most recently, Hull, have left the Sky Blues with work to do but a win here could still put them into fifth and keep some serious pressure on fourth placed Liverpool who appear to have a new found enthusiasm for the game. The recent defeats have come away from Eastlands so a home game will be welcomed by City who have not lost at home since April last year. Recent slip ups could spur Roberto Mancini into a change or two so after impressing after recent substitute appearances, Patrick Vieira and Adam Johnson may find themselves in the starting eleven. City could be without Craig Bellamy who is troubled by a long standing knee injury and Vincent Kompany also looks set to miss out with a groin strain.

Owen Coyle enjoyed a dream start to his reign at Bolton when beating his old side Burnley but there’s been little to cheer at the Reebok since. A 2-0 defeat at Liverpool followed but what might have been viewed as a great opportunity to pick up points last weekend ended up as a dreary 0-0 stalemate at home to Fulham. Coyle’s side are dangerously close to the relegation zone and that’s not likely to improve unless he can transform a defence that have managed to keep only one clean sheet in 23 league games. Their chances of improving on only one win in seven outings was dealt a huge blow when defender Gary Cahill was found to have a blood clot in his arm and it’s possible that he could miss the rest of the season. Andy O’Brien and Fabrice Muamba are doubtful participants and on-loan winger Vladimir Weiss is unable to face his parent club.

It would have been hard to make any sort of case for Bolton, even before the bombshell of losing defensive kingpin Gary Cahill for the remainder of the season, so it’s hard not to see a fair few goals in this with City being back at home and desperate to stay in the hunt for fourth. Over 3.5 goals is the play.

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