Week 21

The Manchester vs. London battles of last weekend ended with a clean sweep for the Manchester sides and whilst the games were far closer this time around than they were when the teams met earlier in the season the results still took all 6 points up North.

Man United's Attack
As discussed on these pages last week, United's attack and ability to score goals has been by far the best of any team in the top 6 over the last month or so even if you count in the blank they they drew against Newcastle in that 3-0 defeat at the start of January. United now have 17 goals in their last 6 games and with 33 goals scored in their 11 games at Old Trafford this season only Manchester City's 34 can boast better when playing at home, and those records set the Manchester teams comfortably apart from everyone else in the league when it comes to the business of getting goals.

In fact the next highest coring side in the league over all is Spurs who have managed a total of 41, 19 less than City and that marks how wide the gap is between Manchester and the rest of the league.

United are at home to Stoke this week. Pulis' men have plenty to be proud of this season and are currently in 8th, but they do concede a fair few goals on the road. Their average of 1.8 conceded per game is amongst the poorest in the league and uncharacteristic lapses from their back line and goal keeper last week saw them concede twice at home to a West Brom who had failed to find the net in 3 of their last 5, so unless Pulis stops the rot quickly there could be a chance for United to score big this week and surprise a few people by inflicting a heavier than expected defeat on a w ell respected Stoke side who have already suffered 4-0 and 5-0 defeats on the road this season when playing against teams of a far lower standard than Man United.

If Rooney, Nani and a few others who have been lacking goals for United lately suddenly find form again (and we all know it's a matter of when rather than if) then Stoke could find themselves having a very bad day at the office.

Man City's Attack
City are currently averaging 2.7 goals per game over all, and more than 3 when playing at home, that's a pretty spectacular record at this stage of the season but for the rest of the league there is a little glimmer of hope.

City's away form appears to have suffered a little lately and their ability to find goals on their travels in the last few months is worth looking in to. They've won just one of their last 5 away games (1-0 away at Wigan) and have failed to hit more than 1 goal in an away match since their visit to Loftus Road at the start of November so their opponents Everton are in with a very good shout of keeping the score down when the two teams meet at Goodison this week. Especially as Bolotelli will be suspended and one or two of the other City forwards have not been at their breathtaking best in recent weeks.

Aguero and Dzeko have scored 1 goal a piece in City's las 5 league games and whilst City's main men all have an abundant number of total goals this season, their next highest scorers outside of those 3 are Silva, Johnson and Nasri, none of whom have been prolific goal scorers this season. Even of their records are still pretty special they rely on he forward men to turn their magic in to goals and points.

With City involved in a League Cup semi-final game they are likely to take quite seriously in mid-week, Everton will also be the fresher team and that too could make life more difficult for Mancini's men.

Everton are having a pretty torrid season, but their defence has remained fairly strong, especially when playing at home. No team this season has scored more than 2 goals past them when at Goodison Park and in fact only 3 teams have managed more than 1 goal so this may well be a tight game won by a single goal if things go true to the numbers.

Everton are certainly capable of causing an upset here and the physical nature of their players will provide the kind of challenge that many of City's new imports will have seldom come across. That should make for an interesting battle, even if the stats suggest it will be a low scoring affair and largely a straight up fight between Everton's defence and City's attack, a fight which will not be easily won by either.