Manchester City, after a month-long slump in November-December last year, cruised to an easy win at the Club World Cup before taking on the domestic competition with renewed vigour. Guardiola's side, despite a long winning streak, is hardly ideal, but last season the Spanish coach also boosted the team's form towards the spring, which led to three titles. Now the Mancunian club is a participant in the 1/8 finals of the FA Cup and occupies second place in the Premier League. The gap from Liverpool is five points, but Manchester City has one match in reserve, where his opponent will be quite modest Brentford. Things are much worse for Burnley. "Bordeaux" in a dominant style won the last draw of the Championships, but to establish themselves at the level of the elite division failed. Now the team sits in the penultimate place, having scored a ridiculous twelve points at the end of the 21st round. Bookmakers have identified the home team as total favourites for the upcoming meeting, offering odds of 1.10 on their victory.

Manchester City after the club mundial with their game emphasised the overcoming of the active phase of the game crisis. The rivals in the championship and FA Cup at Guardiola's team were not the strongest, but the victories gave them confidence. However, it should be noted that in two away games during the period Manchester City lost to Everton and Newcastle, levelling the score and squeezing the opponents in the second half. In addition, Guardiola's side could well have been looking at a replay with Tottenham in the FA Cup last Friday, but scored the winning goal in the 88th minute.

Given the standings, Burnley don't really care that much about who and where they play, as they need to beat all opponents. One thing that cannot be disputed about the maroon side is that the team tries hard in every single game. In the last few weeks Burnley had to play with Liverpool, Aston Villa and Tottenham, but the club did not lose to any opponent with a difference of more than two goals. We bet that the visitors will play tight in defence, and the champions will not waste a lot of energy, having achieved an advantage in the score.