Man City to score at least three goals in beating Blackburn in FA Cup

With 11 wins in their last 12 games in all competitions and victories in four straight away games, few would back against Manchester City continuing their formidable streak at Blackburn in the FA Cup third round.

However, odds of 3/10 is not the most inspiring price for an away team in any match and so some deeper digging is required to uncover a better bet for the clash.

An obvious place to start is how many goals Manuel Pellegrini’s men will score and there is every reason to believe it will be a few, despite Blackburn holding the third-best home defensive record in the Championship, with 10 goals conceded in 12 games at Ewood Park.

But, given Birmingham were the last team to visit and they scored three and Man City have netted at least three in four successive road trips, over 2.5 goals for the Premier League title favourites has to be backed at 21/20.

As good as Man City have been at scoring on the road, they haven’t done a great job of shutting out the opposition at the other end, as it has been eight matches since they kept an away clean sheet, which was in a League Cup win over Newcastle in October.

Blackburn scoring at least once can be backed at 8/11.

In total, Blackburn have scored 32 goals in all competitions this season and Jordan Rhodes has been responsible for exactly half. If Blackburn are to score, there is a strong likelihood that it will be the Scotland international that will be responsible.

Therefore, Rhodes may have some supporters at 15/8 to find the target at any time in the 90 minutes.

Elsewhere, 10/11 is the price that both teams score at Ewood Park and the same odds that both teams don’t. Preference is for the former of these. Although, the 9/5 available for Man City to win a match in which both teams score is a far better option.

With Man City tipped to score at least three goals, identifying who will help themselves to these goals could be another profitable path.

Pellegrini has already indicated that Sergio Aguero, Stevan Jovetic, Jack Rodwell and Martin Demichelis are ruled out, while an upcoming League Cup semi final may result in some regular first teamers being rested.