QPR vs. Manchester City: Key Issues and Decisions That Will Shape EPL Game
Manchester City are presently living a double life. As with most double lives, pulling the stunt off with uniform happiness is usually too much to ask.
City's latest embarrassing episode in the Champions League has them clinging to faint hopes of qualification out of Group E. They have two points from four matches, or two more points than, say, Queens Park Rangers have in the same competition.
Speaking of QPR, City face them in Premier League play this weekend. Whereas City's Champions League status is pitiful, their domestic table position is better than good—two points from second place and three points above fourth. And Chelsea have pulled ahead but not yet pulled away from the trailing pack.
Meanwhile, QPR are already in the "who's getting relegated?" discussion. So this trip to Loftus Road should be no problem for City, right?
Yeah, just like City were going to take six points from CSKA Moscow on their way to the knockout stage of the Champions League.
Who Do You Trust?
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Best of luck to City manager Manuel Pellegrini choosing an XI for this match.
Some of the choices seem fairly easy. Joe Hart should be in goal. Vincent Kompany (if he is healthy) and Pablo Zabaleta should play. Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero are more or less automatic choices.
Beyond them, though, who knows what Pellegrini should do?
Gael Clichy is having a terrible season, but he probably has to play since Aleksandar Kolarov is hurt. The same can be said for Samir Nasri, who likely will only start because David Silva can't. Examples of this sort of dynamic are prevalent up and down City's roster.
Presumably, Pellegrini put the XI plus substitutes he trusted most out against CSKA Moscow on Wednesday. That group lost, and two of them were shown red cards.
Heaven only knows who Pellegrini will put his faith in at Loftus Road.
Bad Luck? That's Your Answer?
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City captain Vincent Kompany would have you believe that City would be eking out better results if they received better treatment from the officials and a bounce or two in their favor.
Well, what team wouldn't benefit from that? Whatever, let's hear it from Kompany:
"We are extremely unlucky. I am not going to talk about the referee, but at some stage I do hope it will turn to our advantage. I believe a lot in karma. It has to go our way," Kompany whined after the CSKA Moscow catastrophe, per the club's official website (h/t ESPN FC's Richard Jolly).
This is terrible. City's season is already sort of hanging in the balance and the team's captain is making the sorts of excuses normally reserved for losing teams and losing players.
Kompany might want to add "no comment" to his verbal arsenal.
Is the Manager Really Already in Trouble?
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Well this didn't take long.
City won the Premier League last season. They received the trophy on May 11, to be precise.
Not even six months later, the long knives are coming out on the Chilean who everyone affiliated with City thought to be the answer last spring.
"Pellegrini was brought in to replace Roberto Mancini on the basis that: a) the players wouldn’t hold him in open contempt and; b) he might stop them being European football’s equivalent of a cartoon character attempting to fire a blunderbuss, having no success, checking said gun by peering directly down the barrel and ending with a scorched face and no hair. If he can’t manage that, then City will be looking for the biggest Acme bin they can find and politely inviting Pellegrini to hop in.
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The Guardian's "Fiver" is given to these sorts of hyperbolic descriptions. Unfortunately for Pellegrini and for City, in this instance Nick Miller happens to be right.
If City flame out of Champions League Group E like it appears they will, Pellegrini may need a prolific Premier League winning streak to stave off the sack.
Another International Break Already?
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After the QPR match, City will not play again for two more weeks as the third interminable international break of the fall sends the players everywhere but the Etihad.
That makes this a trap game for City.
Professional athletes are conditioned to perform at their highest possible level no matter what their schedule and associated travel inconveniences present them.
Still, it must be difficult for City's players not to look at this trip to woeful QPR and start thinking ahead to where they need to be (on international duty or on personal leave) once their work in London is done.
City would have been far better served playing, say, Southampton or Everton in this spot. Those opponents would have been too skilled to look past.
Why Are City Such a Prohibitive Favorite to Win This Match?
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Despite all of the turmoil surrounding the club, City are still a terrible wagering value in this match. Arguably, the smart play would be to back Rangers.
Per Oddschecker.com, City are anywhere from 2/5 to 1/2 to win this match. A QPR win, given a wager placed with the right service, could return the stake and then multiply it seven-fold.
Laugh if you want at the idea that City could lose this match. Backing Stoke City at the Etihad earlier this season was surely quite profitable, as was getting behind Newcastle United in the Capital One Cup recently.
Maybe it is time to profit from City's foibles before the touts figure out that the Sky Blues just aren't really that good.
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