Manchester City vs Bolton Wanderers Half-Time Update

Manchester City currently lead Bolton Wanderers at half-time, where the score at the City of Manchester Stadium is 1-0.

The Blues, who had previously failed to score in their last three home league games, got off to a great start on four minutes when a pass after a surging run from Yaya Toure found Carlos Tevez through the middle, who finished smartly beyond Jussi Jaaskelainen.

Bolton have not kept a clean sheet since the opening day of the season, and things could have been much worse soon after; both Mario Balotelli and David Silva had shots blocked minutes after the goal, as the Trotters were forced to defend in numbers.

Bolton went into this match unbeaten in five league matches and will need a strong half-time team-talk from manager Owen Coyle to get them back into this game. After 45 minutes, the odds are 1/6 for a home win. A high 20/1 is on offer should anyone think Bolton would stage a heroic comeback and claim all three points.

The Manchester club make eight changes from the side that beat Red Bull Salzburg in midweek; the biggest news is that Balotelli starts in attack regardless of yesterday’s news of a training ground bust-up with team-mate Jerome Boateng, who doesn’t even make the bench for today’s game. The £25m Italian international reacted heatedly to a challenge from Boateng, which resulted in team-mates needing to separate them from coming to blows.

Adam Johnson’s individual goal in midweek wasn’t enough to guarantee him a place in the starting eleven, and he is joined on the sidelines by Micah Richards, James Milner and Shay Given, who as expected makes way for the 1st choice goalkeeper Joe Hart. Yaya Toure makes his return after missing two games with a migraine, and the Ivorian has had a great first half.

A win is required from City to close the gap on rivals Manchester United; the Red Devil’s game against Blackpool was called off yesterday afternoon, so three points today would see Mancini’s men close the gap to two points.

City won this fixture 2-0 last season with a goal from Adebayor and a penalty from Tevez; a similar result is currently priced at 3/1; with odds of 12/1 should the 2nd goal come from a penalty.

MCFC: Hart, Kompany, Zabaleta, Kolarov, K Toure (Lescott 31), Barry, Silva, De Jong, Y Toure, Tevez, Balotelli

Substitutes: Given, Richards, Milner, A Johnson, Vieira, Jo

BWFC: Jaaskelainen, Robinson, Cahill, Knight, Ricketts, Muamba, Petrov, Davies, Lee, Elmander, Davies

Substitutes: Bogdan, Steinsson, Taylor, Cohen, Klasnic, Moreno, Blake