the awarding of the first silverware of the season is getting closer and closer, and the efl cup finalists are set to be decided this week. after two interesting first legs, things are very balanced in each contest, with man city heading to ashton gate with a game on their hands. meanwhile, the premier league champions chelsea face arsenal, with both sides in a spot of bother. ahead of both clashes, take a look at our betting tips and odds comparison.
bristol city v man city: can bristol city shock premier league leaders?
bristol city came so close to picking up a huge first leg result at the etihad, before a late winner floored them. they still head in to this meeting at ashton gate 2-1 down, which isn’t the impossible task some imagined they might face in the second meeting when this draw was made. when you factor in city’s sluggishness in recent weeks and their habit of disappointing in the efl cup so far, you have to give the championship side an outside chance of completing a once unthinkable manchester double.
however, the robins are as big as 12/1 with ladbrokes according to our odds comparison. meanwhile, man city are 2/9 with betvictor to take a second leg victory and progress. we’re confident enough in the hosts putting in a shift and making life difficult for the favourites, and that has us looking towards some pro-bristol city markets ahead of this meeting.
the nature of the tie surely means that bristol city have to keep things as close as possible throughout the game, even if that means sitting back for spells just desperately trying to hang in the match. given that city have already been forced to penalties by leicester and wolves in this competition this season, we can see them having a little trouble with the championship outfit here. we feel there’s a lot of value in backing the robins with a +2 handicap at best betting odds of 23/20 with coral, while we’re also going to have a small stake on bristol city double chance at 16/5 with ladbrokes. with the citizens showing signs of slowing down, this could be a game they sacrifice.
arsenal v chelsea: chelsea need goals in trip to emirates
while the other semi-final is a david vs goliath tie, chelsea head to arsenal in the week’s heavyweight clash. it’s at least a heavyweight encounter on paper, as they are both creaking under the weight of their problems. as the gunners make odd transfer market moves thanks to their poor planning, the blues are looking woefully bad going forward. their first five games of 2018 brought two draws with arsenal, two with championship side norwich in the fa cup and a fortunate point at home to leicester. that doesn’t exactly make them terrifying opponents, but then again arsenal have followed up their draws with the blues with losses to nottingham forest and bournemouth.
the gunners have managed to look defensively solid against chelsea for the most part, probably down to the champions’ drought of goals up front. they just aren’t clicking going forward, and the same could be said for arsenal. they’re losing attacking talent at pace this month, and their newfound lack of variation in attack is an issue they’ve created for themselves. we can’t see who is delivering up top for the gunners, so we’re backing under 2.5 goals in this one, which is excellently priced at 15/14 with unibet according to our odds comparison.
while man city’s first leg didn’t go exactly to plan, they’ve still been cut in the outright betting. the citizens are now as short as 4/7 with coral to take the trophy according to our odds comparison. they’re followed by the other semi-final favourites chelsea, and the premier league champions can be backed at 3/1 with william hill. that’s quite a jump, and you can find arsenal even further back at 9/2 with bet365.
the championship’s sole representative can be backed at 50/1 with ladbrokes, which shows how unfancied they are to progress to the final. you could say it’s any one of three as far as the bookies are concerned, but really it’s any side from one when you consider how short city are already. we’ve mentioned arsenal and chelsea’s problems, so neither of those two are likely to be backed to see off the top flight’s runaway leaders in this competition.