Manchester City will aim to close the five-point gap to Liverpool at the Premier League summit on Saturday when they meet Tottenham Hotspur at Etihad Stadium. Both sides suffered losses before the November international break with Pep Guardiola’s men beaten 2-1 by Brighton and Hove Albion while Ange Postecoglou’s side went down by the same score against Ipswich Town.
City confirmed on Thursday that Guardiola is staying on for two more years while a number of first team regulars are closing on their return to full fitness. The defending EPL champions are preparing for eight difficult games in 29 days with six Premier League and two UEFA Champions League outings in that run. Spurs are first up with City beating the Londoners just three times from their last 10 encounters but will be keen to return to Etihad Stadium after four away losses — they are unbeaten across 52 games in all competitions at their Manchester home with 35 of those in the EPL.
Tottenham are in 10th although just three points back on Chelsea in third and Spurs beat City in the EFL Cup recently which could aid them here. Postecoglou’s men have 17 points from 10 Premier League meetings with the Citizens, but have scored at least two goals on each of their last three visits to Etihad Stadium. Just four wins from 18 away games in the EPL tells its own story, though, and no topflight sides has lost more on the road since March than Spurs.
Here’s our storylines, how you can watch the match and more:
Guardiola and City suffered a fourth consecutive defeat for the first time in his managerial career and the last time that the Citizens suffered this sort of losing streak was back in 2006 when Stuart Pearce was in charge. Consecutive Premier League losses which also included a 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth means that City are five points behind Liverpool after 11 games and off the pace in their pursuit of a fifth straight title. Spurs were flying high 12 months ago, but are 10 points and eight positions worse off this time around with five wins, one draw and five losses from 11 EPL games. Extend that beyond the English topflight and Tottenham have four wins and four losses from their last eight games across all competitions.
City: Injured Rodri will be present to celebrate his Ballon d’Or success while Oscar Bobb also remains out long-term. Jack Grealish, Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones, Manuel Akanji and Phil Foden have all trained so could make the cut along with Ruben Dias, Jeremy Doku, Nathan Ake and Matheus Nunes. Stones, Akanji and Dias coming back would really boost the defense with Jahmai Simpson-Pusey dropping out and Josko Gvardiol moving to left-back while Rico Lewis and Kyle Walker seek the right-back spot. Erling Haaland will lead the line after a strong international break with Norway while Mateo Kovacic, Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva are all fit to start.
Possible City XI: Ederson; Walker, Stones, Akanji, Gvardiol; Kovacic, Gundogan; Bernardo, Foden, Savinho; Haaland.
Spurs: Rodrigo Bentancur got a seven-match ban for comments regarding teammate Son Heung-min and Spurs have since appealed. Micky van de Ven, Richarlison and Wilson Odobert are all out while Cristian Romero has a foot problem. Ben Davies could partner Radu Dragusin in central defense while Yves Bissouma could come in for Bentancur next to Dejan Kulusevski and one of Pape Matar Sarr or James Maddison.
Possible Spurs XI: Vicario; Porro, Dragusin, Davies, Udogie; Kulusevski, Bissouma, Sarr; Johnson, Solanke, Son.
This one should be tight and could easily finish 2-2 but a narrow City win with Spurs’ run of two or more goals at Etihad Stadium feels about right. Pick: City 2, Spurs 1.
