Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester City 03/02/20

3 February 2020

The Premier League (PL) weekend action brings another meeting between familiar foes, as Tottenham Hotspur welcome Manchester City to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Tottenham’s four-game winless league run was brought to a halt last game (D2, L2) as they pulled off a tight 2-1 home win over Norwich City, cutting down the gap on fourth-placed Chelsea to six points. Still, Spurs’ struggling for consistency has seen them win three of their past five PL home fixtures (L2). While both of their defeats during that five-game sequence saw them draw a blank, each of their three successes in that period witnessed Jose Mourinho’s men find the net at least twice. Scoring the first goal will be essential for the Londoners, who have won five of six PL home matches in which they drew first blood (D1).

Meanwhile, fresh from sealing a place in the Carabao Cup final, the visitors will be looking to post their third successive top-flight win over Tottenham in London. Although they’ve endured various ups and downs over the past couple of months, Manchester City tend to win with dignity when they do so. Indeed, six of their previous eight league triumphs yielded a margin of two goals or more, with City leading at the break on half of those occasions. Furthermore, they’ve won four of their last five PL road trips (L1), scoring over 1.5 first-half goals in three. Extremely aggressive from the very first minute, Pep Guardiola’s players have opened the scoring in ten of 12 PL away matches so far this season, failing to hold on to the lead only twice (D1, L1).