Preview: Manchester City vs Swansea: City to start strong

Swansea City, the first ever Welsh club to earn promotion to the Premier League, will kick-off life in the top division with a daunting trip to Eastlands to face Roberto Mancini’s expensively assembled Manchester City side.

They say that the first trophy is always the hardest so City will have been delighted to have finally claimed some silverware, in the guise of the FA Cup, after a wait almost 34 years long. In addition to that, England’s wealthiest football club finally reached the promised land of Champions League football by finishing third in the league. If the first trophy is indeed the hardest then more should follow for Mancini’s men, and many commentators are expecting a serious challenge from City in their efforts to dethrone their city rivals of the Premier League crown.

Swansea, on the other hand, would be ecstatic if they could manage to avoid relegation. Having won promotion via the playoffs they can reasonably be called the weakest of the three new sides hoping to avoid the drop this season. Manager Brendan Rogers has the Welsh team playing eye-catching expansive football, more akin to Tony Mowbray’s West Brom team of a couple of seasons ago than Ian Holloway’s defensively poor Blackpool team las year. Neither of those sides proved good enough to stay up but both won many plaudits for entertainment value, not that that was any consolation. Swansea will have to produce a special season to not end up in the same situation.

City new boy Sergio Aguero was on the bench for Community Shield and it remains to be seen whether Mancini will start him in the opening game. Should he not start, it would be extremely likely that the Argentinean will come off the bench for his home debut, since he was an unused substitute in Wembley. Bet365 offer good odds of 7/2 on Aguero grabbing the last goal of the game.

There is little value in the markets since Man City are heavy favourites to win and win easily. There are decent odds of 4/5 on bet365 if you fancy Joe Hart and his mean defence to keep a clean sheet, while 4/1 is given on Swansea producing an opening day surprise to share the spoils.

Tip: Man City to keep a clean sheet @4/5