Manchester City travel to Wembley on Saturday night, four days after losing at home to Liverpool in the Champions League quarter-final, which also saw them eliminated from the competition.
It’s been a chastening week for Pep Guardiola, who’s now lost three consecutive games. Twice to Liverpool in the Champions League, but also to rivals Manchester United in last week’s derby, despite being 2-0 up at half time. While losing despite having such a healthy advantage against Manchester United is troublesome, what’s really worrying for City are the eight goals conceded in the three games. They’ve shown defensive frailties over the course of the last week and can no longer be classified as impenetrable, which will be of huge concern as their task doesn’t get any easier against Spurs.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side are the in-form team in the Premier League at the moment, having won their last six Premier League games, including a victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, a feat they haven’t achieved since 1990. That run, mostly accomplished without star striker Harry Kane, has seen them all but guarantee Champions League football next season, a huge boost as they return to their new stadium.
Tottenham Hotspur vs. Manchester City Predictions
Spurs go into this game as slight favourites, which isn’t really surprising considering the contrast in fortunes between the two sides. However, City’s lean spell must come to an end at some point. Spurs are good at Wembley though and this one will have goals in it. Expect a high-scoring draw as the result of this one.
Tottenham Hotspur vs. Manchester City Betting Tips
Head to Head
- Tottenham have won their last two home league games against Man City. They last had a longer run against them between 2005 and 2009 (6).
- Man City have only won one of their last five Premier League games against Spurs (D1 L3), though it was in the reverse fixture in December (4-1).
- This will be the third Premier League game to kick-off at this time on a Saturday, after Southampton 4-0 Arsenal (26/12/2015) and Leicester 2-2 Manchester United (23/12/2017).
- Manchester City have won two away Premier League games in London this season. The only campaign in which they’ve won more in the competition was 2013/14 (4).
- Indeed, those two wins have come at Arsenal and Chelsea. Only three clubs have ever won away at all three of Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs in the same Premier League campaign (Coventry 1993/94, Charlton 2001/02 and Blackburn 2002/03).
- Tottenham are unbeaten in their last 14 Premier League games (W11 D3). They last had a longer unbeaten run in the top-flight between January-August 1967 (20 games).
- Manchester City are looking to avoid back-to-back Premier League defeats for the first time since December 2016.
- Only Alan Shearer (14), Wayne Rooney (11) and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (11) have scored more Premier League goals against Spurs than Sergio Aguero has (10). However, the Argentine hasn’t scored in any of his last five against them.
- Christian Eriksen has scored in three consecutive games in all competitions for Spurs for the first time since joining them, with the Dane netting five goals in total in that run.
- Son Heung-Min has been directly involved in 27 goals for Spurs in all competitions this season (18 goals, 9 assists), 22 of these have come at Wembley, more than any other player for the club in 2017/18.
Tottenham Hotspur Team News
Harry Kane has featured in the last two Spurs matches after recovering from injury and looks likely to lead the line again. Harry Winks is still out injured, while it seems unlikely that Toby Alderweireld will play for Spurs again.
Probable Tottenham XI: Hugo Lloris, Serge Aurier, Jan Vertonghen, Davinson Sanchez, Danny Rose, Victor Wanyama, Mousa Dembele, Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen, Heung-Min Son, Harry Kane
Manchester City Team News
Vincent Kompany and Sergio Aguero were both on the bench for the midweek game against Liverpool, but could start for Pep Guardiola’s side at Wembley. City have no new injury concerns, although Bernard Mendy is still out with a cruciate ligament injury.
Probable Manchester City XI: Ederson, Kyle Walker, Nicolas Otamendi, Vincent Kompany, Danilo, Fernandinho, Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva, Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero, Leroy Sane
