English Premier
2011-08-28 - Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester City
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football : English Premier League
Sunday 28 August 2011 - Kickoff 1:30pm
This game is live on TV
Tottenham Hotspur
Harry Redknapp looks close to finalising a move for Scott Parker from West Ham and there is now news that the Lassana Diarra transfer is not as 'dead' as it was claimed to be earlier in the day. With those two players still expected to walk through the door at White Hart Lane, rumours persist that Luka Modric will be allowed to move to Stamford Bridge as he wanted.
Tottenham moved through to the group stages of the Europa League with a convincing 5-0 aggregate win over the Scottish side Hearts, but their one and only Premier League game of the season saw them dismantled in the last 30 minutes at Old Trafford in a 3-0 loss. That means Spurs start this game at the bottom of the League, but there will be no rush to panic at this early stage.
Spurs are unbeaten in their last 17 home games in the Premier League, although they will want to turn a few more of those results from draws into wins. Their last 8 at White Hart Lane has seen only 3 home wins and that will be not be good enough if Spurs want to make it back to the Champions League this season.
Emmanuel Adebayor will not be making his debut for Tottenham as he is signed on loan from Manchester City. Luka Modric is expected to play, while Jermaine Jenas and Kyle Walker are both likely to have recovered from illness. Expect a huge number of changes from the young team that played against Hearts on Thursday.
Manchester City
Brian Marwood has said Manchester City will not be making any more signings after they completed the transfer of Samir Nasri from Arsenal to join the other marquee signing of Sergio Aguero. The squad looks more than capable of sustaining a challenge in the Premier League this season, although it will be interesting as to how attacking Roberto Mancini plays considering the talent he has to his disposal.
City are top of the Premier League, ahead of rivals Manchester United on goal difference, and are one of three teams that have an 100% record going into the weekend games. They won their sole away game of the season at the Reebok Stadium when beating Bolton 2-3 in an entertaining game.
The win at Bolton was the 3rd away from home for City in their last 10 away games in the Premier League. The team beat Bolton twice in that time and beat Blackburn in the other, but in that same time period they lost at Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Everton.
Samir Nasri is in the squad for the game, but whether he starts or is on the bench is not announced, especially with the attacking talent in the squad. Nigel de Jong is not available, but there are no other injury worries in the team.
Head to Head
Tottenham had a long record of dominance over Manchester City in the Premier League, but much of that stretches back to a time when City were not the same club as they are today.
However, Tottenham had won 4 in a row against City before last season when they drew at home and lost at the then named City of Manchester Stadium.
Spurs had won 6 in a row against City at White Hart Lane before the 0-0 draw here on the opening day of last season. However, anyone who remembers that game will remember that Spurs dominated and should have won the game easily.
Prediction
This is a fascinating game to open the live Sunday football and I think it could go a long way to showing us all how Roberto Mancini will set his side out to play against the bigger and better teams in the Premier League.
Spurs are a very tough team to beat at White Hart Lane, and they have beaten the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea at home over the last couple of seasons as well as beating Inter Milan in the Champions League here. The likes of Gareth Bale and Luka Modric could cause problems if City are sending out an attacking line up without protection.
City looked good going forward last week against Bolton, but there were some serious issues defensively and I look forward to seeing how they adjust to that. They were very good keeping clean sheets last season, but the game against Bolton and Manchester United in the Community Shield suggests there are some concerns back there.
I still have some reservations about this City side, especially considering their losses at the better teams in the back end of last season, so I think a small interest on the home win has to be worth chancing.
Add to the mixer the Spurs record against Manchester City at White Hart Lane and I think the 3.00 quotes is a vast overreaction to a bad 30 minutes at Old Trafford for Spurs and a City team that has made a decent start in the League.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Manchester City
