Preview: Tottenham Hotspur vs. Manchester City – prediction, team news, lineups

Supported by both halves of North London – albeit only for a few hours – Tottenham Hotspur can lend a helping hand to bitter rivals Arsenal when they host the city of Manchester in Tuesday’s tantalizing Premier League battle.

Ange PostecoglouHis men sent Burnley back into the Championship thanks to a 2-1 success on Saturday, shortly after their visitors briefly claimed top spot thanks to a 4-0 thrashing of Fulham.

Match preview

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Four successive Premier League defeats looked momentarily to become a miserable five for a lukewarm Tottenham during the opening exchanges of their battle with Burnley, who needed nothing less than three points to keep alive their hopes of a miraculous escape on the hour mark current. at least a few hours.

However, just seven minutes after Jacob Brun Larsen had opened the scoring, Spurs hit back Pedro Porro – to make amends for his role in the Clarets strike – ahead of another lauded defender Micky van de VenSpurs’ player of the season finished as a veteran centre-forward to complete the turnaround.

As well as ensuring Burnley will play second-tier football in 2024-25, Spurs’ victory saw the fifth-placed Lilywhites cut the deficit to fourth-placed Aston Villa to four points and their hopes of the Champions League will continue to become standing. until Tuesday if Liverpool get at least a point at Villa Park on Monday.

Victory for the Lions and Tottenham will officially see them outside the top four, although Postecoglou has stressed on numerous occasions that getting above the desired dotted line is not the ultimate goal for his side in their debut campaign, one in which Spurs have established themselves. a new club record in the Premier League era.

Indeed, fighting back to beat Burnley means Tottenham have now rescued 25 points from lost positions in the 2023-24 Premier League – the most in the competition and second only to Liverpool’s 28 this term – and a seemingly endless run of Spurs home games. Seeing both teams score now makes it 14 games in the top flight.

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Conceding the first goal in each of their last five games does not bode well for a Tottenham side who may have mixed feelings about taking points from Manchester City, whose traditional late-season surge has finally seen them to overtake Arsenal from the gold medal position. Saturday at noon.

The new-prolific one Josko Guardiol came up with two of the Citizens’ four strikes at Fulham’s Craven Cottage, where the FWA Player of the Year Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez also went into action; the latter calmly dispatched a penalty after Gvardiol missed the opportunity to become the first defender to score a Premier League hat-trick.

Guardiol unselfishly allowed Alvarez’s penalty to fulfill his 12-yard duties, perhaps also taking into account City’s inferior goal difference, and the treble winners established a two-point lead over Arsenal with their seventh straight Premier League win League, but their former noise. the neighbors couldn’t do them a favor on Sunday.

Indeed, Arsenal’s scrappy 1-0 win over Manchester United put the Gunners back in top spot and restored their one-point advantage over the champions, who must prevail on Tuesday if they are to take control of their title destiny on 19 May. .

Yet another new page in the club’s history could be written at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as Man City have never won eight consecutive Premier League games with at least two goals in front and beat Spurs 1-0 in north London in FA Cup in January. tie.

However, Premier League hoodoo still hangs over the men in blue as they have only won one of their last five top-flight games against Tottenham and have never won a Premier League game at Spurs’ new stadium , although some Lilywhites supporters may happily give up that record if it doesn’t mean the title parade for Arsenal.

Team news

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Tottenham striker Richarlison was a surprise omission from Brazil’s 2024 Copa America squad, although national team coach Dorival Junior explained that the former Everton man had a calf problem, which was confirmed by Postecoglou at the weekend.

The fact that Richarlison’s problem is serious enough to rule him out of the continental tournament suggests he will not be available for Spurs’ final two Premier League games, joining Timo Werner (hamstring), Ben Davies (veal), The Solomon Mansion (knee), Ryan Sessegnon (thigh), Fraser Forster (ankle) and Destiny Udogie (thigh) on the respective list.

After a few Emerson Royal disaster classes, with which Postecoglou experimented Oliver Skipp at left-back for the visit of Burnley, but the 23-year-old’s relative lack of minutes and close turnover means Emerson could return; Postecoglou is reluctant to play Van de Ven off the pitch due to his injury problems this term.

Speaking of versatile defenders experiencing fitness issues, only a quarter of the game was played at Craven Cottage before Guardiola had to be called off. Nathan Ake outside the match; the Dutchman’s injury was not specified, but he was in visible discomfort.

It remains to be seen whether Ake’s problem will be serious enough to prevent him from participating here, but he should be the champions’ only absentee if so; Jack Grealish he should return from the illness that kept him out of Saturday’s success.

Fortunately for Guardiola, he can undo the possible loss of Ake by simply remembering Kyle Walker and movement Manuel Akanji or the return John Stones to a central role and the Catalan manager could also look to capitalize on Spurs’ left-back losses by reintroducing tricky play. Jeremy Doku.

Tottenham Hotspur possible starting lineup:
Vicar; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Emerson; Bissouma, Bentancur; Kulusevski, Maddison, Johnson; sonny

Manchester City possible starting lineup:
Ederson; Walker, Stones, Dias, Guardiol; Silva, Rodri, De Bruyne; Doku, Haaland, Foden

We say: Tottenham Hotspur 1-3 Manchester City

One thing is almost always a guarantee in Tottenham’s home games in the Premier League – both teams find the back of the net – but the goalmouth action should be more prevalent in Tottenham’s box as they struggle to close down.

Still in the dirt at left-back and yet to keep a clean sheet at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium since October, Spurs should eventually snap their unbeaten run at home to the champions, not that Arsenal haters will be losing much sleep because of this.

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