England Premier League Betting Tips - Manchester City vs Southampton

Manchester City begins their defence of the EPL with a home match at newly promoted Southampton.  It’s a baptism of fire for Southampton who will have hoped for an easier opening game in their return to the premier league.  City are coming off an impressive Community Shield win over Chelsea and will be aiming to start as they mean to go on with a resounding victory in front of their home fans.

City has been uncharacteristically quiet in the transfer window thus far, only bringing in Jack Rodwell from Everton.  Their interest in Daniel Agger of Liverpool seems to have cooled but manager Roberto Mancini will still be interested in a central defender and striker to supplement his squad.

Southampton has made some impressive signings since their promotion from the Championship.  Their big move was a €8.7m purchase of striker Jay Rodriguez from Burnley, a big risk on a player who hasn’t played premiership football yet.  Also brought in where two impressive free transfers, Steve Davis from Rangers and Nathaniel Clyne from Cristal Palace, these two will improve the squad but it still needs some investment if they are to have the quality to stay in the Premier League.

Total Goals

With City at home a plethora of goals are expected.  Over 2.5 goals is 1.53 with the under at 2.63.  If we look at City’s 15 home league games last season we can see that in in 12 there was more than 2.5 goals and the average total goals was 3.4

Asian Handicap

The Asian market sees a resounding home win as the most likely result, the handicap is set at City -1.75 @ 1.9 with Southampton +1.75 @ 2.05.  With City’s strong performance in the Community Shield I can see them starting this game strong and putting Southampton to the sword in a one sided display from the Champions.