Swansea versus Manchester City will be the first match of the championship of the English Premier League in 2014. The match will start on 1 January at 14.45 and offers a really interesting clash.

Although this year Swansea is not performing at the level of the last season, they are still a team that is hard to beat. Manchester City plays not so well as guests in the season, although they are invincible at home. This ensures an extraordinary match which given the easy program of the leader in the current standings Arsenal in January could be decisive for the first place fight. Manchester City certainly don’t want to lag behind the leader and the pressure upon them in this match will be enormous.

The form of Swansea players will be crucial in this match. Michael Laudrup’s players have not won any of their last five matches and have recorded three draws and two losses after they won against Newcastle with 3-0 on December 4th. There is no way the poor results they have lately not to affect their attitude in the match and what is more important to throw away from the mind of Laudrup any thought of outplaying the stars from City. This implies that he will come up with the idea to keep a clean sheet rather than scoring, which means a more closed game.

Video from the last Manchester City’s mathc

Manchester City managed to beat the struggling Fulham with 2-4 away and achieved a draw 1-1 at Southampton. The victory against Fulham came really hard as in the middle of the second half, the result was equal 2:2. Then the individual class of City’s players said its word and the match was taken.

The defensive tactic, which most probably will be used by Swansea, will be crucial in this game. Swansea players can play in that way which turned out to be successfully implemented by the players of Southampton in their match against City. The Saints are a team that is similar in style of play to Swansea and they managed to restrict Manchester City to just one goal. For precisely this reason my prediction for this match is under 2.5 scored goals.

Video from the last Swansea’s match

The proposed by bet365 odds for this bet are 2.4, William Hill and Bet at Home offer 2.5. Coefficients which are more than excellent for this bet.