FA Cup Holders Manchester City take on 13-time winners Arsenal at Wembley on Saturday in the first of two high profile semi-finals.
Arsenal have been the most successful team in the world’s oldest cup competition but they come up against an opponent that has been a thorn on their side over the past few years.
The Gunners, however, are coming into this game in high spirits after a morale-boosting 2-1 win over Liverpool in the Premier League.
Holders city are also coming into this game off a great run. They’ve won their last three games in the league, scoring an incredible twelve goals in that run.
They’ve really become Arsenal’s kryptonite in recent seasons. This season alone, they beat them home and away in the league, both times by an identical 3-0 scoreline.
With the premier league gone and second place secured, Man City had the luxury of resting star players against Bournemouth and still came out 2-1 winners. They have dominated fixtures against Arsenal in recent years and this game in all likelihood looks to follow the same pattern. They’ve been in stupendous form after the resumption and they look focused on gaining consolation for losing the title by going out for the remaining cup competitions (FA Cup and the Champions League) to add to the League Cup that they have already won. They are the outright favourites for this tie and the cup. Given that they have been winning at halftime and fulltime in their last seven straight wins against the Gunners, we are backing the same outcome @ 1.90 as our initial betting tip here.
Arsenal’s victory over Liverpool, while fortuitous, will certainly embolden the Gunners to try and press high against City. Both of the goals they scored came from defensive blunders by Liverpool as Arsenal’s forward pressed high on them. While City have generally dominated games with their usual possession game this season, they have also been prone to making defensive errors at the back. If there is anyone that knows where such weaknesses may be, it has to be Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta. He worked as Man City’s assistant coach before taking up the Arsenal job. We fancy Arsenal to score at least a goal here and therefore backing Both Teams to Score @ 1.75 as our next betting tip.
For our final prediction we are inclined to go for the goal scorer option. And here, we are spoilt for choice. Man City, in particular, have so many scoring threats. We are however settling for striker Gabriel Jesus, who has been in such good form. He has scored in each of City’s last three consecutive games. He also scored in last year’s semi-final and final. With Belgian maestro Kevin De Bruyne expected to be fully rested for this tie after missing the Bournemouth game, Jesus can be sure his supply lines will be busy. Bwin betting app have Jesus to Anytime @ 2.25 and we are picking this as our final prediction.
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