Manchester City vs Tottenham Hotspur: Spurs bidding to capitalise on Guardiola misery

Saturday’s Premier League action rounds off at the Etihad Stadium with a mouth-watering clash between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur.

Less than a month since crashing the perennial English champions out of the Carabao Cup, Spurs head to Manchester in dire need of points.

Out-of-form rivals

Ange Postecoglou’s charges have had a ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ type of season, most recently evidenced by a 2-1 home defeat to newcomers Ipswich Town.

Consistency has been a major issue for Tottenham.

Fans watching live football on TV could have seen the London outfit’s last five Premier League outings fluctuate between defeats and victories (W2, L3).

Spurs will be out to maintain that trend and pour more misery on a downtrodden Man City side.

Pep Guardiola has overseen four consecutive defeats in all competitions for the first time in his illustrious managerial career.

Back-to-back 2-1 losses to Brighton & Hove Albion and Bournemouth have left the Cityzens five points adrift of table-topping Liverpool.

Selection problems

In addition to injured Richarlison, Micky van de Ven and Wilson Odobert, Tottenham will be without the suspended Rodrigo Bentancur.

According to Postecoglou via the Daily Mirror, the club will appeal against the length of his seven-match ban for a racial slur about his clubmate, Son Heung-min.

Spurs picked up a fresh injury concern during the international break as Cristian Romero sustained an ankle problem while on duty with Argentina.

Timo Werner’s ability is also up in the air.

Thorn in City’s side

Despite Man City’s domestic dominance under Guardiola, Spurs have never feared them.

On the contrary, they’ve embraced Guardiola’s ‘total football’ and used it against him.

That’s perhaps best illustrated by Tottenham’s three most recent Premier League visits to the Etihad.

Barring a 4-2 defeat in January 2023, they avoided defeat in the other two (W1, D1), netting precisely three goals on each occasion.

When factoring in last month’s Carabao Cup success and City’s recent fall from grace, it’s impossible to exclude the possibility of Spurs returning home with three points.