Sports Blog 27/01/2016: League Cup Semi-Final 2nd Leg – Manchester City vs Everton, Wednesday 27th 2016

With Liverpool besting Stoke on penalties (seeing Jurgen Klopp reach his first English cup final in the process), Everton are aiming to meet their Merseyside rivals with a win at Manchester City this Wednesday evening.

The Toffees are going into the 2nd leg at the Etihad with a 2-1 lead to protect, Romelu Lukaku’s winner coming 2 minutes after Jesus Navas drew City level following Funes Mori’s opener. Yet that remains Everton’s sole victory in 2016; in fact, in the midst of a truly limp run of form, Roberto Martinez’s side have won 1 game in their last 10 Premier League appearances, losing 3 and drawing 6. That has seen Everton go from pushing for a place in Europe to languishing in 12th place with a mere 29 points, 8 points away from the relegation zone AND the 5th-place, Europa League qualifying spot.



Manchester City, on the other hand, may have lost their League Cup semi-final 1st leg, but remain unbeaten in the Premier League since the New Year began. They actually are league-loss-less since Boxing Day, beating Sunderland, Watford and Crystal Palace and drawing against Leicester, Everton (0-0, in an ominous sign for those expecting a high scoring game) and, most recently, West Ham. That run, combined with Arsenal’s error against Chelsea last weekend, sees City back in 2nd place (if only on goal difference), but 3 points behind the still-flabbergasting Foxes.

Whilst their last meeting may have ended goalless, both sides are packing some impressive firepower. With 19 goals in all competitions (his 15 league goals leaving him the 2nd top scorer behind Jamie Vardy) Everton’s brilliant Belgian Romelu Lukaku is at a 6/1 fixed odds to strike first, with a Super Mega PGM spread of 28-34. The only player to best that spread is City’s South American supremo Sergio Aguero, who heads into the 2nd leg at a whopping Super Mega PGM of 61-71. With 15 goals so far this season the Argentinian may be lagging behind Lukaku; however, Aguero has scored 5 of City’s last 9 goals, and is perfectly placed to break a few Scouse hearts on Wednesday evening.

Given the Toffee’s inability to seal a win at the moment, our Spreadex traders fancy the home side, at a Manchester City/Everton Goal Supremacy spread of 1-1.2. They are also offering an especially high Total Goals spread of 3.2-3.4, understandable given the fact that City and Everton are the 1st and 4th top scoring sides in the Premier League.

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