Tottenham Hotspur
. v
Manchester City
White Hart Lane, London
Saturday 26th September, 2015, 12:45 GMT
***
Tottenham Hotspur welcome Manchester City to White Hart Lane after having recorded back to back wins for the first time this season in the league.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino will be hoping to beat City and further boost the morale of his side after going through an unbeaten 5-game run, but losing to Arsenal FC in the League Cup in midweek.
As for City, they will be looking to bounce back from their defeat to West Ham last week as they prepare to get their season back on track.
City manager Pellegrini will be hoping to get his side’s first defeat out of the system and bounce back with a win.
Team News & Tactics
Spurs are expected to continue their 4-2-3-1 line-up that they have deployed throughout the season. Manager Pochettino will be delighted by the impact of new signing Son, who has scored in each of his starts so far.
Spurs attack will be spearheaded by Harry Kane with the trio of Eriksen, Lamela and Son providing support.
The absence of Ryan Mason, Nabil Bentaleb and Mousa Dembele might hurt them, but Eric Dier and the impressive Dele Alli will be hoping to nullify any such effect.
The back 5, as expected, will consist of goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, Kyle Walker, Jan Verthongen, Toby Alderweireld and Ben Davies.
Spurs predicted XI (4-2-3-1): Lloris; Walker, Alderweireld, Verthongen, Davies; Dier, Alli; Eriksen, Lamela, Son; Kane
Manchester City Tactics & Lineups
Having comfortably beaten Sunderland in midweek, Manchester City have their captain Vincent Kompany back, but Elequim Mangala will miss the game due to an injury.
Nicolas Otamendi is expected to continue in central defence in the absence of the French defender with Kolarov and Sagna in the full-back positions.
Manager Manuel Pellegrini praised the performance of new boy Kevin de Bruyne, who is expected to continue in his central role in the attacking midfield positions with Raheem Sterling and Jesus Navas out wide as David Silva is still not recovered from the injury he suffered in the warm-up against West Ham.
Yaya Toure and Fernandinho will be in the heart of the midfield with Sergio Aguero on top.
Citypredicted XI (4-2-3-1): Hart; Sagna, Kompany, Otamendi, Kolarov; Toure, Fernandinho; Sterling, Navas, de Bruyne; Aguero
Match Facts:
- There have been under 2.5 goals scored in 7 of Tottenham’s last 8 games in the Premier League.
- Tottenham have kept a clean sheet in their last 3 matches in the Premier League.
- Man City have won their last 5 away matches in the Premier League.
- Tottenham are undefeated in their last 5 matches in the Premier League.
Man to watch:
Sergio Aguero
Aguero has not had the best of starts to the new season, rather surprisingly, given the fact that City have made a flying start to the new season. Aguero has scored just once in five games, having missed a host of chances across all of the six games City have played so far. However, you get a sense in every game that once it starts going in, Aguero will be putting quite a few in the back of the net.
Prediction
Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Manchester City
Spurs will want to bounce back following the defeat to arch-rivals Arsenal FC. With the Londoners in good form over the last two games in the league, one can expect them to make it difficult for Manchester City who may find the absence of David Silva a problem.
Blast from the past
