The Premier League season is reaching its most crucial stage, with the title race tightly fought, while Leeds United, Burnley and Everton have a three-way battle to avoid the final relegation place and result drop into the Championship. This weekend sees a fixture which has the potential to have a major effect on both key battles in the division, should Leeds manage to cause an upset against Champions Manchester City.
However, pundits are in agreement that Leeds will struggle to avoid a comfortable Manchester City victory on the day. Here's what they've been saying:
Mark Lawrenson - BBC
The former Liverpool defender predicted a 2-0 win for Manchester City. He said: "Leeds still only play one way.
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"I know Jesse Marsch has changed it a little bit since replacing Marcelo Bielsa as manager in February but they are still hyper-intensive, and still work really hard. I think City are too good for that to work against them, and it doesn't help that Leeds really lack a striker while Patrick Bamford is out.
"I can see Pep Guardiola's side keeping them at arm's length, and just picking them off. City's biggest win of the season so far came when they beat Leeds 7-0 at Etihad Stadium in December. We won't see the same scoreline on Saturday, but they should still control the game and win comfortably."
Paul Merson - Sportskeeda
Merson predicted a 3-0 away win. The former Arsenal midfielder explained: "I see nothing but a City win here. Liverpool will probably win their game, so this is another massive match for them.
"Leeds have been harder to beat since their new manager has come in, but I don't see how they'll stop Manchester City."
Michael Owen - Bet Victor
Owen agreed with Merson's score prediction. He stated that: "Leeds did what they needed to do and got a point against Palace on Monday. It wasn’t a classic, but Jesse Marsch and Leeds won’t care one bit. They’ve got some difficult fixtures coming up, they need to pick up points in those sorts of games.
"It doesn’t come much more difficult than City. They looked in great form against Watford, where Gabriel Jesus stole the show. He’s always been a natural goalscorer, and he took his four goals very nicely. Some of City’s play against Real on Tuesday was brilliant, they could have scored six or seven!
"I don’t think we’ll see quite as many goals here, but City should score a few."
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