The European games do not really excite me betting wise today, the five English and three French fixtures look especially tough to call, although the Manchester City- Chelsea makes a little appeal as I see this different to most. H2h meetings between these two have been very cagey affairs in recent seasons and that is how many people see today's game playing out and it might, but I have concerns about both teams defensively right now and this is very early in the campaign for such a high profile fixture and that might mean we do not see quite as tactical a battle as we would have done later in the season.
 

City are coming off a 3-0 win at West Bromwich Albion on Monday when I wrote...........City have a wealth of offensive options, but concerns about them defensively remain and conceding ten goals to Roma, Real madrid and Stuttgart in warm up games have done little to alleviate those, the four they shipped to the German side who only narrowly survived in the Bundesliga last season and should be at least a week behind in terms of preparation were particularly worrying , especially given that they probably went with the same backline there (Kolarov, Sagna, Mangala and Kompany, with Hart in goal) as we will see this evening. I only saw very brief highlights of that game, but the Manchester Evening News called it an "embarassing" performance and that the backline looked like "they had barely met before" and Joe Hart was" left exposed on numerous occasions." The defence will get more protection from the holding midfielders this evening, but confidence at the back can hardly be sky high and Albion can take advantage of that on the counter.
 

I expected home boss Tony Pulis to flood the midfield, he went with two up front, handing the initiative to City, who were two up early and it was "game over" after the first quarter, Pulis later admitted he should have listened to me and gone with one up top, OK, the part apart me was false, but he did say that he got his tactics wrong. The early lead allowed City to dictate matters, clearly offensively they look great just now, but I suspect the backline which gave plenty of cause for concern in pre season, will get far more of an examination this afternoon. Chelsea have scored in 8 of 10 visits to City and the hosts will probably need at least two to win and I am expecting goals.
 

Chelsea conceded twice at home to Swansea last weekend and also brought defensive issues from pre season into that game, Jefferson Montero tied Branislav into so many knots that he might not have managed to undo them yet and Raheen Sterling will be aiming to continue the torment of the right back this afternoon. Blues keeper Thibaut Courtois is suspended, which means a Chelsea league debut for Asmir Begovic (pictured), he had a bit of a nightmare against New York Red Bulls in pre season and conceded four the last time he faced City back in February and that is bound to have at least crossed his mind.

 

1.25 units "over" 2.75 goals 2.44 asian line/Sportmarket.
 

Good Luck.