Consent Preferences Spurs Odyssey Premier League match preview - Manchester City v Spurs, 13.02.21
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Spurs Odyssey Preview - Manchester City v Spurs, 13.02.21

· Last season's game - Man City 2 Spurs 2 - 17.08.19
· This season's home game - Spurs 2 Man City 0 - 21.11.20
· Premier League Matchday 24 - last year
·
See the current injury list for all Premier League Teams
· All the Spurs Stats you could hope for here! THFC6061 Sports Stats

Full Record of Spurs -v- Manchester City


Prem          Pl  W  D  L   For-Ag  Pts
Home          24 15  3  6   37 -27  48
Away          23 10  4  9   30 -38  34
======================================
Total(Prem)   47 25  7 15   68 -64  82  1.74 pts per game
======================================
Football Lge
Home(Div 1)   46 21 13 12   84 -59  58
Away(Div 1)   46  7 11 28   39 -90  24
======================================
Total(Div 1)  92 28 24 40  123 -149 82
======================================
Football Lge
Home(Div 2)    2  0  1  1    2 - 3   1
Away(Div 2)    2  0  0  2    0 - 3   0
======================================
Total(Div 2)   4  0  1  3    2 - 6   1
======================================
Total(Prem)   47 25  7 15   68 -64  82
Total(Div 1)  92 28 24 40  123 -149 82
Total(Div 2)   4  0  1  3    2 - 6   1
======================================
Grand Total  143 53 32 58  192-220 165
======================================

Last Six Premier League results:-

Man City   -    WWWWWW

Man City   4-0    C. Palace
Man City   2-0    A. Villa
West Brom  0-5    Man City
Man City   1-0    Sheff Utd
Burnley    0-2    Man City
Liverpool  1-4    Man City

Spurs      -    DWLLLW
           
Spurs      1-1    Fulham
Sheff Utd  1-3    Spurs
Spurs      1-3    Liverpool
Brighton   1-0    Spurs
Spurs      0-1    Chelsea
Spurs      2-0    West Brom

Pos           P  W  D  L   F-A   GD  Pts
1. Man City  22 15  5  2  43-14  29   50
8. Spurs     22 10  6  6  36-22  14   36 

Should we fear the worst?

I was thinking of using the headline, "Don't forget Audere est Facere Spurs!" The fact is that in the FA Cup at Goodison Park on Wednesday night, we did dare, but ultimately, we did not get the facere element of our traditional motto right. Whilst I was devastated to go out of the FA Cup, there are plenty of Spurs fans who wrote on message boards and social media channels that they would rather see us lose in the fashion we did against Everton, than the way we lost recent games against Liverpool, Brighton, and Chelsea. Now we've lost four of our last five games, should we fear the worst at the Etihad tomorrow? (Sky Sports - 5.30pm)

Believe it or not, Spurs have a better points per game ratio against Manchester City in the Premier League than they have against last week's opponents West Bromwich Albion. As you can see in this preview's statistics that ratio is 1.74 in 47 games against City, and that compares favourably against 1.69 against West Brom. That's very marginal, of course. As marginal as a VAR decision in a Champions League quarter-final you might say! You might also say, and let’s be honest, it is likely, that our ratio against City will deteriorate after tomorrow's game.

It is easy to prepare the 6-match form guide in relation to Pep Guardiola's men. That's because it reads WWWWWW. You could add another 4 Ws to the list of City's recent consecutive league wins. In fact, they have now won a record 15 successive matches including cup wins. City have conceded just one goal in their last seven league games, and that was Mo Salah's penalty which was (ahem) somewhat dramatic in its manner. The only other teams to have scored against City in their last 10 games have been Cheltenham and most recently Swansea in the FA Cup. We were the last team to beat City, and one of only two teams to achieve the feat this season. The other was Leicester.

City have three more points (50) than they had after 22 games last season. Then they were 14 points behind Liverpool. Now they are 10 points ahead of the Champions who they beat 4-1 last week thanks to an "Alisson Blunderland" performance. That is not to under-state the superb form of this City team for whom Sergio Aguero has played just 143 Premier League minutes so far this season and has yet to score in the league. Gabriel Jesus has played over 1,000 league minutes and scored just 4 goals. Gundogan, Sterling, Foden and Mahrez have all scored more. Foden, who is still just 20, was the star of the show at Anfield. He's made more starts this season than before, and since scoring his first Premier League goal against Spurs in April 2019, Foden has scored 10 more. Thank heavens he is English!

City's last four wins have been achieved without the assistance of midfield ace Kevin De Bruyne, famously once rejected at Chelsea by our current manager Jose Mourinho. De Bruyne is likely to be out for the rest of this month. Pep will also be without Aguero and also defender Nathan Ake. To be fair Aguero's fitness and form has not been good enough to see him selected more for a year now. Ake, who was signed from Bournemouth last summer, has been out since Christmas.

Our last game at The Etihad was a full 18 months ago. City were then the defending Champions (after two successive title wins), and whilst we had lost (in terms of scoreline) on our previous three visits, in August 2019 we came away with a point after a 2-2 draw. We've beaten them twice at home since then. It was 2-0 both times. "Sonny" scored in both those home games, and of course last February the "Harry Kane" team won without Harry Kane!

Our 2-0 win in November was achieved with a 4-2-3-1 formation and not by playing five or six at the back. There will be a need to defend, of course, but if we sit back against this side, we will concede goals. I am hoping for Aurier to be fit for this game. I think there is a place for Sissoko in this side, but it has to be next to Hojbjerg. I'd like to see a front four of Lamela, Ndombele, Son and of course hit-man Harry. Since the magical night of 5th May 2010, we've only won once at The Etihad. That was in February 2016. It was Valentines' Day. It was also Christian Eriksen's birthday. Eriksen and Kane (penalty) scored our goals. Joe Hart was in goal for City. It was a seventh consecutive win for Spurs. Should we fear the worst tomorrow. We've suffered six big defeats at home and away against City in the last 10 years. I'm hoping to avoid that tomorrow, but then it's the hope that kills you, isn't it?

Did you know? The Etihad Stadium is City's third home venue since they were known as City. They did previously play at other venues in the 19th Century when they were known as Ardwick. Spurs played City 100 years ago on February 12th 1921 at White Hart Lane when we won 2-0 with goals by Jimmy Cantrell and Jimmy Dimmock. we were on our way to winning the FA Cup that season. Those were the days! Hyde Road was City's home till 1923.

Our match referee will be Paul Tierney for the fifth time this season. His previous games with Spurs have all been draws! Mr. Tierney has been the man in the middle for 14 Premier League games this season and strikes me as a calm individual. He has had some high profile games, such as the recent Liverpool v Man Utd game. On Tuesday, he was in charge of Manchester United's FA Cup victory against West Ham.

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