Crystal Palace vs Bournemouth: Crystal Palace to win – 11/10
Tuesday 7.30pm
Both sides come into this with identically poor records over the last five games. Crystal Palace and Bournemouth have both picked up just four points from a possible 15, but Palace’s record has been hampered by a horrendous run of fixtures.
The Eagles were beaten by Liverpool, Leicester and Chelsea and drew away to Arsenal before arresting their winless run on Saturday at Burnley.
Bournemouth, meanwhile, have lost each of their last three games since beating Manchester United and they look somewhat short of ideas up front.
The Cherries had gone over six hours of league football without a goal before Josh King’s goal against United at the start of the month, but they still look short of ideas up front and are increasingly reliant on Harry Wilson to provide them.
Bournemouth were shambolic defensively against Tottenham and were twice undone by a simple ball over the top.
With Wilfred Zaha finally back amongst the goals, they could struggle on Tuesday night.
Burnley vs Man City: Draw half time/Man City full time – 11/4
Tuesday 8.15pm
It’s difficult to remember the last time Man City put in a good performance for 90 minutes. The back-to-back league champions have been insipid in all competitions for over a month and the Premier League is already starting to get away from them.
City have already dropped 13 points this season, just three less than last season and just one less than their record-breaking 2017/18 campaign. It is not just the dropped points that is a cause for concern, however, but the manner of their performances.
They had just enough to get over the line against Chelsea before stuttering to uncharacteristic draws against Shakhtar and Newcastle. Prior to that, City were all at sea defensively against Liverpool and again just about squeezed past Southampton at home with another stuttering Champions League draw against Atalanta sandwiched in between.
Failure to win again on Tuesday is simply not an option and Pep Guardiola will be looking for a performance that suggests that City may be able to find their groove before it is definitely too late.
It’s hard to tell if they’ll get it and it’s even harder to tell what Burnley they’ll be facing. The Clarets have been one of the most erratic sides in the league, and have won three and lost three in their last six league outings.
Sean Dyche’s charges have ranged from the ridiculous to the sublime in recent weeks, recording successive 3-0 victories before succumbing to a 2-0 defeat at home to Crystal Palace on Saturday.
City have struggled to break teams down recently and have only led at half-time in one of their last five league games. They could be jittery on Tuesday due to the huge pressure on them to get a result, but they should just about eek it out.
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