Televised Premier League Match: Bolton Wanderers v Manchester City

Premier League / Richard Walker / 31 October 2008 / Leave a Comment

City may be the Premier League's top scorers but they haven't exactly set the season alight so far, says Richard Walker. Can the Eastlands entertainers triumph or will boring Bolton suck the life out of the game?

Difficult one this.

I'm not in the least bit surprised to see Bolton near the foot of the table. Without the relative spending prowess afforded to Big Sam (it often manifested itself in wages not transfer fees), the dour Gary Megson has managed to create yet another side that neither score nor concede too many; eight for and 13 against are the numbers.

Compare this to Sunday aftenroon's visitors to the The Reebok, Manchester City. A team with 23 goals to their name, the highest in the division, having shipped 16 - quite a few, but not many more than the struggling Trotters.

And yet they haven't actually ripped it up in the league. It's a fact that you cannot simply buy, buy, buy and hope all these different nationalities and styles will knit together perfectly from their first game. Doesn't happen that way, which is why Hughes rightly continues to play this season down.

From the Sky Sports camera angle we're afforded at Wanderers' home, the pitch seems big enough to cater for some really free-flowing football but the home team, with their much-vaunted 4-5-1 formation, always seem to manage to close the playing surface down and force a set-piece fest.

I can see City opening things up - come on, it's the only way they know these days - but I can also see Megson going even more defensive and playing for a 1-0 or 0-0 if they don't get a sight of goal.

My Match Odds play would be to lay Bolton, albeit not with cast-iron confidence, to a [3.2] liability, although I must stress this should be covered with 1-0 to the boring hosts at odds of [10.5]. The [3.45] about The Draw and [2.44] for a Mark Hughes smile make up the Match Odds option.

For all the Blues' goal power, 0-0 at [12.5] to back should be in your portfolio somewhere for a small percentage of your overall stake. Wanderers can suck the life out of potentially the best of games. Megson's love of the binary is well-known among previous employers, most notably West Brom who once went up on a diet of 1-0 wins.

Let's lift the mood by pondering the scenario of a free-flowing, attacking match. If that's the case, lay Bolton becomes a must, even in-game if you get the sense it's going to be a goal-laden affair. Young Robinho must then enter calculations to notch first - around [6.5] when the market develops, I should think - with Ched Evans, a replacement for the out-of-sorts £18m striker Jo, an interesting option at roughly [11.0].

I tipped up Kevin Davies to score first when Bolton were last on the telly, away at West Ham, and for me he fits the bill as a To Score (at any time) choice. If he's [4.0] or more, avail away.

Like the Spurs v Liverpool clash, this has the potential to sink under the weight of negative tactics - so perhaps an early goal from my selected Brazilian with breathe life into this one.