Tottenham v Manchester City: Preview, Team News, KO, Television Plus..
By Logan Holmes
Christian Eriksen [Photo: Alan Hill]After a ten day break, Tottenham return to Premier League football with a difficult match against Manchester City at White Hart Lane, looking to avenge their heavy defeat two months ago at the Etihad Stadium.
With Tottenham and Manchester City in the top-5, both teams will be anxious to take the three points in tonight’s encounter at White Hart Lane. Three points would move Tottenham level with Liverpool who defeated Everton by four goals last night and also open a four point gap on the Goodison club. City know that a win would take them to the top of the table, a point ahead of Arsenal who drew at Southampton.
Date: Wednesday, 29th January, 2014
Kick-off Time: 7.45pm (UK time)
TV Channel: BT Sport
Last Season
Spurs will be hoping for a repeat of last season’s result against Manchester City last April when they recovered from conceding an early first half goal to win with three goals in seven second half minutes from Clint Dempsey, Jermain Defoe and Gareth Bale. Dempsey set the ball rolling in the 75th minute from a Bale cross, Defoe scored his first goal of 2013 and Bale completed the dramatic comeback.
Spurs Home League Record against Manchester City (inc. PL)
P 64 W 32 D 17 L 15 For 110 Ag 78
Home PL Record against City
P 16 W 11 D 3 L 2 For 25 Ag 16
**Spurs have lost five of their last 6 Premier League encounters with Manchester City, after losing just three of their previous 27.
City are having an exceptional season – they are second in the Premier League, have reached the Capital One Cup Final, in he last 16 of the Champions League and in the 5th Round of the FA Cup. They have scored over 100 goals and have the perfect home record with 11 wins from 11 matches. Their only reversal at the Etihad stadium was against Bayern Munich in their European group stage match.
Away from home, City started the season slowly and have lost four games – at Cardiff, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Sunderland. They are undefeated since the loss to Sunderland a week before their victory over Spurs. In the last 11 league games, City have dropped only 2 points in a 1 – 1 draw at Southampton in early December. They have also drawn one other League game, at Stoke in September.
City’s first away win came at West Ham (3 – 1) in mid-October and they since have recorded victories at West Brom (3 – 2), Fulham (4 – 2), Swansea (3 – 2) and Newcastle (2 – 0). In their 11 away games they have scored 21 goals and conceded 17. They recorded three away wins in their Champions League fixtures including a win over Bayern Munich.
City can score goals from all parts of the team. Their leading goalscorer is Sergio Aguero with 25 goals in all competitions. He scored twice against Spurs in November and got a hat-trick for City in last weekend’s FA Cup recovery against Watford. Alvero Negredo also scored in the reverse fixture and has 23 goals this season. Edin Dzeko who scored 4 for City at White Hart Lane against Spurs in August, 2011 has scored 16 goals.
Spurs will be hoping to improve on their home record which has seen them defeated on 3 occasions at White Hart Lane. Tim Sherwood will hope for a positive result as he looks to continue with his impressive record since taking over as Spurs manager. He will be hoping that some of his injured players will be fit to play against City. As well as accommodating returning players, Sherwood has to decide between 4-4-2 and the 4-5-1 system he used at Swansea and whether to restore Roberto Soldado to play along with Emmanuel Adebayor.
Team News
Tottenham may have Jan Vertonghen and Paulinho available after returning to training but Sandro who played in a behind-closed doors match earlier in the week went off with an injury so is unlikely to be risked. Andros Townsend and Erik Lamela are still out with injury.
City will be without Samir Nasri, James Milner and Javi Garcia but Negredo has recovered from a shoulder injury and David Silva is also available.
Both teams have a great deal to play for so there will be no lack of motivation for either side. City will want a win to move ahead of Arsenal but under the circumstances, Spurs might regard a draw as a good result.