Manchester City are back in FA Cup action tomorrow night against Luton Town as they seek to defend their trophy – and BBC pundit Chris Sutton has admitted his surprise about Pep Guardiola’s side of late.
City take on the Hatters at Kenilworth Road and are bidding to make it past Rob Edwards’ side without too many issues.
City defeated Luton 2-1 at their ground earlier in the season, with Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva scoring the goals after falling behind.
They ground out the result that day, and fans are hoping for an easier game tomorrow night. But Luton will be looking for retribution, and it will not be easy.
At the moment, City are getting the job done without really hammering teams and this has come as a surprise to Chris Sutton…
Chris Sutton says Man City are like 1990s Arsenal side under George Graham at the moment
Sutton has been looking at the week’s FA Cup ties and given his score predictions for each.
As ever, he gives his thoughts about each team involved, and the pundit has expressed his surprise about City at the moment, admitting he hadn’t expected to see City winning ugly.
He said (via BBC Sport): “I didn’t expect Manchester City to start reminding me of George Graham’s Arsenal side of the 1990s, but they are winning ugly at the moment, with back-to-back 1-0 wins.
“Luton gave City a good game at Kenilworth Road before Christmas, when they led 1-0 at half-time before losing 2-1, and I think Hatters boss Rob Edwards will go for it again here, despite having Premier League survival to think about.
“I am expecting City to edge it again this time, although I am not quite sure what team their manager Pep Guardiola will put out.”
Sutton reckons City will just edge the contest and win 2-1, as was the case back in December.
Winning ugly is the sign of a top team
City may have had back-to-back 1-0 wins, but realistically it is very surprising that City only scored two goals considering they had 40 shots across the games with Bournemouth and Brentford (17 on target).
Inspired goalkeeping from Mark Flekken and Neto has made it look like City have won ugly when in fact, both victories were relatively comfortable.
But City definitely do have the capacity to win ugly, with Pep Guardiola obviously in possession of match-winning players like Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland and Phil Foden.
At this stage of the season, City fans will not care all that much about performance. We’re at the business end and it’s winning that counts, especially with Liverpool and Arsenal both presenting strong challenges in the league.
