Man City v Man Utd FA Cup Final Tips: De Bruyne can help land 17/1 Bet Builder

• City and Haaland didn't end the campaign in hot form

• United deserve respect so the Draw at 4.84/1 appeals

• De Bruyne and Fernandes can net in a 17/1 Bet Builder

---

City have eyes on Treble

Forget Meatloaf's philosophical compromise that two out of three ain't bad; Manchester City want the treble.

The Premier League has already been tucked away for a fifth time in six years, City bursting past Arsenal before easing up at the finish to win the title by five points.

And now come the two games that decide whether this will be remembered as Pep Guardiola's golden season (unless they repeat the feat of course!): the FA Cup final against local rivals United and the Champions League final against Inter next Satuarday for which City are 1.241/4 to gain the one prize that has so far eluded them.

United have own history to defend

Beating your 'noisy neighbours' in the FA Cup final stands alone as an achievement with extra gloss and meaning.

But when it's in your own hands to deny City repeating the unprecedented feat of United's 1999 Treble team, motivation levels step up another notch.

Like City and Guardiola, United and Erik ten Hag already have one piece of silverware in the bag this season. And with a Champions League spot secured for the next campaign, landing another trophy would make this a superb debut season for the Dutch manager.

Is a City win too obvious?

Manchester City finished 14 points above Manchester United in the season just gone.

They thrashed the men in red 6-3 at the Etihad and have won three of the last four meetings.

The odds reflect those basic facts. Man City are 1.574/7 to get the job done in 90 minutes while Man Utd are 6.411/2 to triumph in regulation time. The Draw is 4.84/1.

But there is also a case for suggesting this could unfold differently.

United fought back from 1-0 down to defeat City 2-1 in the most recent meeting, Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford scoring in the last 12 minutes to back up Ten Hag's comments that lessons had been learned from the 6-3 hammering.

While City will rightly claim they controlled large parts of the game and that United's equaliser was highly contentious due to Rashford seeming to affect play when in an offside position, the result still has resonance.

Modest finish and cooling Haaland a concern

The biggest worry Manchester City fans may have is that by virtue of the title being sewn up early, their team's Premier League season rather petered out.

While Pep rested and rotated, City were held 1-1 at Brighton and lost to Brentford on final day. A rhythm was lost.

What's more, the season concluded with Erling Haaland enduring his driest run of the campaign: one goal in his final six appearances.

For all the crazy numbers and talk of records being demolished, Luis Suarez scored more non-penalty goals (31) for Liverpool in the 2013/14 season than Haaland (29) did for City this term and not an awful lot is said about the Uruguayan's feats.

Of course, Haaland could make those doubts look stupid by banging in a hat-trick in both this game and the Champions League final but this is probably not how Pep would have planned it for his centre-forward.

So to the outcome. A repeat of their extraordinary performance in the 4-0 win over Real Madrid would mean there's only one winner on Saturday.

But with Haaland just a bit out of synch and City finishing the season with only two goals in their final three games, I'm willing to take a punt that this is no foregone conclusion.

Draw appeals

I still expect City to get the treble done but I'll go against the idea that this will be the easier of the two remaining fixtures.

Ten Hag is a canny operator and winning one Wembley final already (their 2-0 success over Newcastle was achieved with a certain level of assurance) adds a layer of confidence to United.

The Red Devils also ended the season in better form than City after signing off with four straight wins.

So in the belief that City may have to really sweat this out, the bet I'm lured in by is The Draw at 4.84/1.

City's bench may prove the stronger and help them come through in extra-time but when Paul Tierney blows his whistle at full-time I think the engraver won't know whether to add 'City' or 'United' to the 'Manchester' he's already carved out pre-match.

Goals expected at Wembley

With the two teams sharing 12 goals in the two Premier League meetings, it's easy to see why Over 2.5 is the clear favourite at 1.75/7.

But there are also reasons to support Under 2.5 at 2.3811/8. City have yet concede a goal in this season's FA Cup while United played out a 0-0 draw with Brighton in the semi-final.

De Bruyne and Fernandes to star in Bet Builder

With Pep wanting to find rhythm, the best way of doing that is to play his Champions League starting XI here.

That would likely mean him turning to the side that demolished Madrid, with the forward thrust provided by Gundogan, De Bruyne, Silva, Grealish and Haaland.

For the Bet Builder, I'll take De Bruyne, who is 12/53.40 on the Sportsbook to net anytime.

His goals in April and May came against Liverpool, Arsenal (twice) and Real Madrid. In other words, the Belgian is scoring big goals in big games.

For United, Bruno Fernandes netted in United's final two Premier League fixtures and scored the equaliser against City back in January.

Backing both to score in a Bet Builder - this is a Bet 5 Get 5 game - pays around 17/118.00.

Opta stat

Manchester City are the highest scorers in this season's FA Cup (first round onwards) with 17 goals. The last team to score more in a single campaign were the Citizens themselves, netting 26 en route to lifting the trophy in 2019.

---

Football... Only Bettor - Watch Here!