Manchester City vs. Norwich City Prediction, 7/26/20
Guaranteed the 2nd-place finish in the EPL this season, Manchester City are rounding off the 2019-20 league campaign with a home contest against bottom-dwelling Norwich City, who have already been relegated to the EFL Championship. Kick-off - at 11:00 AM ET on Sunday, July 26.
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City Shine Versus Watford
Manchester City bounced back from their 2-0 defeat to Arsenal in the semi-final of the FA Cup last Saturday with a commanding 4-0 victory against relegation-threatened Watford away at Vicarage Road on Tuesday. Raheem Sterling scored twice, with Phil Foden and Aymeric Laporte also on the scoresheet, as the Citizens completed the season-double over the Hornets with an aggregate score of 12-0 - a joint record for a team against another in England’s top tier. Manchester City is now riding a four-game winning run in the league, outscoring their opponents 16-1, and have guaranteed themselves the 2nd-place finish, currently sporting a W25 D3 L9 record for the year.
English winger Sterling has netted a team-high 19 Premier League strikes this season. Goalie Ederson, meanwhile, sits 18th in the EPL with 64 saves. He has recorded a joint league-high 15 clean sheets in 34 outings during the ongoing campaign and allows a goal every 107 minutes of play. Manchester City has scored the absolute highest amount of Premier League snipes this year (97) while taking the highest quantity of shots per game (19.3). The team is top of the league in both ball possession (62.4%) and passing accuracy (89.3%).
Norwich Lose Ninth Straight
The current losing streak of relegated Norwich City (W5 D6 L26) expanded to nine Premier League fixtures after the team was beaten with a score of 2-0 by Burnley at Carrow Road last Saturday. Emiliano Buendia and Josip Drmic saw red cards for separate incidents at the end of the first half before the visitors opened the scoring just moments before the interval, with an 80th-minute own-goal by Ben Godfrey dooming the Canaries to become just the third team in England’s top-flight history and the first since 1922 to lose five home outings in a row without scoring a goal.
Finnish striker Teemu Pukki leads Norwich with 11 Premier League markers. Dutchman Tim Krul, meanwhile, occupies the 2nd position in the EPL’s goalkeeper chart with 128 saves. He has registered five clean sheets in 35 outings during the current campaign and gives up a goal every 50 minutes on average. The Canaries have buried the absolute lowest amount of league goals this season (26) while taking the 13th highest quantity of shots per game (10.9). The team is 9th in both ball possession (50.3%) and passing accuracy (80.6%).
Prediction
Relegated Norwich City have won just four of their 43 top-flight encounters with Manchester City. And while one of the victories happened in this season’s reverse fixture in September (3-2), don’t expect a similar miracle to occur on the final day of the Premier League action. The Canaries have lost their last nine EPL games and haven’t managed to score a single goal in 11 of their previous 13 league contests, while the Citizens have been banking tallies for fun, outscoring their opponents 16-1 in their past four matches alone. In fact, this series has the highest goals-per-game ratio of any Premier League fixture to have been played at least 10 times during this Century, with 47 markers spread throughout 11 contests with an average of 4.27 strikes per game.
Best bets:
Manchester City to win to nil (-175)
Correct score: 5-0 to Manchester City (+855)