In the penultimate game of last season Harry Redknapp boldly led his Tottenham side to Eastlands and a Peter Crouch header secured a well deserved 1-0 win over Manchester City for the London side, facilitating this campaign’s European adventure. Wind the clock forward 12 months and the sides meet again, but this time it is City that can make the top four with a win.
Despite being pegged back from 1-0 up to lose 2-1 against Everton on Saturday, the home side sit in a commanding position prior to the game, as they hold fourth place and on 62 points are six ahead of Spurs. Roberto Mancini’s men have shown glimpses of brilliance this season, but at times have seen this countered by crippling inconsistency, highlighted by their last six games, where they have won three and lost three.
City’s inconsistency is nothing compared to Tottenham’s inadequacy of late; Redknapp’s team have won only one of their last nine league games, a 3-2 home win against Stoke. With the excitement of taking on European giants AC Milan and Real Madrid a lack of focus in the surrounding domestic games can be understood, and maybe even forgiven. However in the last four games the side have no excuse, as without Champions League distractions they still have lacked a clinical edge and been shrouded in incompetence, highlighted in the 1-1 home draw against lowly Blackpool on Saturday.
The Castrol Premier League Match Predictor has identified the Manchester club as favourites, and they are 44% likely to win, compared to a draw at 23% and an away victory at 33%.
City will be boosted by the potential return of Argentinian talisman Carlos Tevez, however Castrol also offer the interesting fact that Mancini’s team have scored more goals without Carlos Tevez in the side (1.7) than with him in their team (1.5) in the Premier League this season.
Spurs will hope that their opponents will be distracted by the upcoming FA Cup final on Saturday and look to repeat last year’s heroics, but will have to do so without Gareth Bale who is sidelined for the remainder of the campaign with ruptured ankle ligaments.
City are on the verge of glory and the millions invested has almost returned a significant reward, whilst Spurs need to buck their current trend of poor results to stand any chance of visiting grounds like the San Siro and Bernabeu again next season.
Soccerlens Prediction: A lot can happen in 12 months and the result looks likely to be the reverse of that of the previous campaign. Tottenham look fatigued and ready for the end of the season, and it will most likely be their inaccuracies rather than City’s superiority that results in a 2-0 win for the home side.
- On the last occasion that Mike Dean took charge of this fixture in the Premier League, there were three red cards given – two of them to Manchester City.
- Manchester City have failed to score in their last three Premier League matches against Tottenham Hotspur.
- Man City goalkeeper Joe Hart was forced to make eight saves against Spurs earlier this season; more than in any other game.
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