Tottenham Hotspur vs Man City
Date: 14/04/2018
K/O: 19:45pm
Venue: Wembley Stadium
TV: Sky Sports Premier League
Manchester City travel south to the National stadium hoping to get their title celebrations underway in the capital. Can Spurs cause another upset to Guardiola’s sublime, yet stuttering, City side?
For one of the best football teams to ever grace the Premier League, it has been a rough few weeks for the Citizens. Going out of the Champions League 5-1 to Liverpool over two legs was not in the script, and bitter rivals Manchester United ruining their title celebration after Paul Pogba led an unbelievable comeback at the Etihad has caused further upset. Who ever said it was going to be easy?
Now Guardiola, De Bruyne and Kompany (pun intended) head to one of the form teams in the league, Tottenham Hotspur. Having seen City’s recent capitulations, Spurs will be buoyed with confidence and looking to further disrupt the northerner’s march to an inevitable league title.
Embed from Getty ImagesSergio Aguero is expected to be absent so expect Gabriel Jesus to lead the line for City. Without Toby Alderweireld Spurs have still looked strong in defence, although there are more cracks in the wall than there were last season. Guardiola and his men will look to exploit the likes of Ben Davies on Saturday.
Fernandinho also starts his two game ban, leaving a hole in the defensive midfield role. Whoever fills in here will have to make sure they stick to their defensive duties, otherwise Spurs may look to hit City hard on the counter.
For Tottenham it is business as usual, which includes constant rumours of links with big clubs and their most prized assets. Increasingly however, it has become harder and harder to single out individual talents in this Spurs side. Dembele, Son, Sanchez and Vertonghen provide the bulk of what is an ever expanding supporting cast of top performing stars for the likes of Kane and Eriksen. Dele Alli also seems to be returning to form, and just in time for the World Cup (dare to get your hopes up for England? nah thought not).
Embed from Getty ImagesHarry Kane is a threat with both feet, head, and apparently his shoulder now as well, but Guardiola’s men will be wary of focusing too much on the prolific young Englishman as Spurs have many alternate attacking threats.
Key Battles
As is often the case in these big games, it is the midfield where the match is won or lost. De Bruyne and Silva will be looking to side-step Dembele and Eriksen en-route to feeding Jesus and Sane further forward.
The role of each sides wing backs will also be an interesting watch, both sides like to send their wing backs flying forward. With Spurs playing a back four more recently, Davies and Trippier will have to be careful not to be pinged back by the likes of Tottenham old boy Kyle Walker.
Score Prediction
Tottenham 1-3 Man City – It’s about time City put to bed their run of calamitous results and who better to do it against than Tottenham, and in the Nations capital. Party time anyone? Whatever the outcome, we are in for another entertaining game of Premier League football with two of its top performing clubs of the last few seasons.
Be sure to catch the analysis of the game here at 90maat.com – your digital Premier League guide.
Written By Chris Wyles.
