Manchester City vs Manchester United Offers Up Plenty of Intrigue

This is definitely the marquee match-up for the mid-week Premier League fixtures, and you can count on a fascinating one unfolding at Eastlands on Wednesday.

United are getting the slim edge from the bookmakers and that’s more than understandable as City have been playing well but they definitely lack an element of consistency.

Sir Alex Ferguson revealed his selection dilemma to the media today, and while he confirmed that Ryan Giggs and Owen Hargreaves will sit this one out due to injury, it appears as though Nani is still considered 50/50. You reckon that there could be a bit of mind games from Sir Alex and seeing the up-and-coming Portuguese player on the team sheet wouldn’t be an enormous surprise.

Rumours of a virus in the Manchester United dressing room are also circulating, and it could affect the likes of Paul Scholes, Dimitar Berbatov and Nemanja Vidic. It could be another makeshift side from Sir Alex, but then again this could all be an attempt to throw off Roberto Mancini.

Mario Balotelli has been hit with a three-match suspension and won’t feature in this clash although Carlos Tevez is set to appear. He has been the essential element for City this year and he’ll be fired up to get one over his old teammates.

There is a supremely interesting goalscorer match bet out there on this one with Carlos Tevez vs Javier Hernandez. Tevez gets the edge from the bookies here and you can back him at 13/5 with Chicharito just a shade behind at 10/3.

There are a few interesting goalscorer options here and it’s a more interesting wager than the outright result. The big question comes down to how well Joe Hart is going to play and if United can get one in the back of the net early then they’ll have a distinct advantage, confidence-wise.

Javier Hernandez to score in both halves is priced at 18/1 while he’s also at 18/1 to win a penalty. Tevez to grab a pair of goals is trading at 6/1.