It often takes Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City teams a little while before they click into top gear.
Last season, it took until after New Year’s Day for the Cityzens to hit their stride.
It looked like a similar pattern was developing this campaign as City were struggling to create scoring chances at their usual clip.
Those struggles seem to be behind City.
The Cityzens are 4-0-0 since returning from the international break and have outscored their opponents 14-3 in that span.
City hasn’t played a murderers’ row during this hot streak, but scoring 14 goals and creating 11 expected goals is downright impressive.
The Sky Blues will have a chance to continue their roll against Young Boys on Tuesday afternoon.
Manchester City vs. Young Boys prediction
(3 p.m. ET. Paramount+)
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This is an interesting spot for Man City. The Cityzens are in cruise control atop of Group G and are eight points ahead of Young Boys and Red Star Belgrade, meaning their spot in the knockout round is essentially clinched.
In other words, the Sky Blues could take their foot off the pedal in this spot in order to keep the squad fresh for a big Premier League showdown with Chelsea next weekend.
It does seem like Guardiola may be leaning that way, too, as Erling Haaland is unlikely to feature in this contest.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if Haaland isn’t the only City star to start this contest on the bench as the stakes aren’t that high for the home side, and their B-team could handily beat Young Boys.
While City may be looking to rotate its squad in order to stay fresh for matches to come, the situation is quite different for Young Boys, who are almost certainly going to be battling with Red Star Belgrade for third-place and a spot in the Europa League.
The two Group G longshots both have one point and a -4 goal difference, so avoiding a blowout against City in this spot could be what determines who qualifies for the Europa League and who goes home.
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Expect Young Boys to come out in a very defensive posture and do everything it can to gum up the game in order to keep City to a respectable scoreline Tuesday.
The Bet: Under 3.5 total goals (+100, BetRivers Sportsbook)
