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St Andrew's hosts City battle

Author: John Harris
Date: 01/11/2009
Football betting

Mark Hughes' big spending Manchester City travel to the second city on Sunday to face Birmingham City at St Andrew's.

The Sky Blues have spent well over £100million during the summer on the likes of Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Roque Santa Cruz and Gareth Barry to name a few and their star-studded squad will want to keep the pressure on the top-four with a victory this weekend.

They sit in sixth spot before the weekend and remain six points behind leaders Chelsea although they do have a game in hand over Carlo Ancelotti's men.

Birmingham are at the other end of the table and they will be confident of causing an upset following their impressive 2-1 win against Sunderland last time out.

Liam Ridgewell and James McFadden scored the crucial goals for Brum and the win has kept them away from the foot of the table.

Alex McLeish's men are in 15th place ahead of the weekend action and just two points from the relegation places.

Who will take the three points at St Andrew's? - Latest Football Betting

A problem the Scot will be aware of is that his team have scored just eight goals in their ten Premier League games to date and they could find it difficult to add to that tally against a defence that consists of Kolo Toure, Micah Richards, Joleon Lescott and Wayne Bridge.

Craig Bellamy and Adebayor are leading the way in the goalscoring charts for the visitors with four apiece and they will want to add to their records for the sportsbook favourites this weekend.

Worryingly for Birmingham, they have McFadden and Lee Bowyer locked on two goals as their current top scorers.

Mark Hughes will be pleased to know that Brazilian striker Robinho is nearing a return to the first team and he could be in the reckoning to make an appearance.

McLeish has plenty of injury problems ahead of him with Giovanny Espinoza, Gregory Vignal, Damien Johnson, Marcus Bent, Martin Taylor and Keith Fahey all likely to struggle to make it back to fitness.

Nedum Onuoha is struggling for the visitors with a thigh strain and Hughes has an otherwise full strength squad to choose from.

The Blues, who gained promotion from the Championship last season, may not be expected to pick up a result from the clash, but this may work in their favour as all the focus will be on Hughes' men.

Following three successive Premier League draws, the Blues from Manchester will be scrutinised further still as they try to establish themselves as a genuine top-four contender.

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