White Hart Lane Showdown
Tottenham Hotspurs v Manchester City Preview
English Premier League
by assistant editor Oliver Gui
edited by editor Wong Yang
Tottenham
Predicted Line-Up: Lloris, Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen, Assou-Ekotto, Parker, Dembele,
Lennon, Sigurdsson, Bale, Adebayor,
Form (Last 6 games): LLWDDD
Manchester City
Predicted Line-Up: Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Nastasic, Clichy, Barry, Y.Toure, Milner, Tevez, Silva, Dzeko
Form (Last 6 games): WWWWLW
Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas confirmed on Friday that Gareth Bale (ankle) is fit to face Manchester City on Sunday, with Aaron Lennon (knee) "progressing well" and Jermain Defoe (muscle problem) hopeful of inclusion while Gylfi Sigurdsson and Emmanuel Adebayor are likely to start. Andre Villas Boas has lost Younes Kaboul (thigh) and William Gallas (calf) which means that Jan Vertonghen and Michael Dawson are likely to start for Tottenham. Roberto Mancini is likely to bring in Gael Clichy, Pablo Zabaleta and Matija Nastasic after they were rested for City’s 1-0 win over Wigan Athletic while Maicon (virus) and Sergio Aguero (hamstring) are out. However, David Silva (hamstring) is likely to return from injury and may feature in the starting 11.
Tottenham return to Premier League action after a 10 day break with their last match against Basel in Switzerland in the Europa League fixture which they drew 2-2 (4-4 on aggregate) but crashed out of the tournament on penalties. This result and a previous bad run of form will no doubt have dented their morale as they face a difficult but must win this game against Manchester City to boost their hopes of Champions League qualification after Arsenal had knocked Spurs out of the top 4 during this 10 day break. During the break, however, Tottenham’s star players, such as Gareth Bale, Jermain Defoe and Aaron Lennon have made good progress in their efforts of recuperation from injury as Tottenham have greatly missed the trio, who have scored 40 goals between them in all competitions this season. This has caused Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas to remark that the PFA Player of the Year nominee Bale’s return will scare Manchester City. Indeed, Tottenham have failed to win a game this calendar year in which Bale has not scored in. However, Tottenham player Gylfi Sigurdsson is confident of his side’s ability as he told the club’s official website, “It’s a tough game against City but we’ll be aiming for the three points, the lads are up for it.”
On the other hand, Manchester City will also be confident of bagging all 3 points after a recent fine run of form which saw them win the Manchester Derby and beat Chelsea to reach the FA Cup final. If Manchester City lose the game against Tottenham, and Manchester United beat Aston Villa, this will see City surrender the Premier League crown to Manchester United. However, City have no intention of doing that this early on as Manchester City coach Brian Kidd said, “Listen, we’re champions. We’re champions and we want to fight until the end. I think it would be poor if we thought it was all over, it's possible we can win the league.” However, even if City beat Spurs, it is highly unlikely they would be able to overhaul a double digit points difference. However, the thought of delaying Manchester United claiming the Premier League trophy will be motivation enough for the City players as they travel to White Hart Lane where they thrashed Tottenham 1-5 last season.
Predicted scoreline: Tottenham 2-2 Manchester City
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