The last game of the upcoming English Premier League round is between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City. It will be played on Monday night, and you can safely assume that the whole soccer world will be watching.
Spurs have found the consistency to become a genuine title contender in the past couple of years under Mauricio Pochettino. At the same time, Pep Guardiola has built the strongest squad in the history of the English Premier League, at least if you ask me or the stats from last season.
Both clubs have the ambition to finish at the top of the EPL table and are currently only two points apart. A win here could elevate Tottenham above Manchester City, which adds extra spice to the match.
The current leaders will certainly want to keep their place and open a bit of a gap. As it stands, there are too many teams that are too close to Manchester City.
I’m sure that Pep Guardiola will want to begin building a distance from each of them, and this is a good opportunity to start.
As always, my main goal will be to take a look at the odds offered by the top EPL gambling sites and share my free betting pick on Spurs vs. Manchester City.
The first step of this preview would be to check the mainstream betting markets that are available.
I completely understand why Manchester City is the favorite in this one, as the team has certainly been more consistent than Tottenham this season. And yet, the price of 1.76 seems too low to me, at least at the first glance.
On the other hand, the UEFA Champions League games of both sides will give the reigning champions an even bigger advantage than usual, but more about that later.
As for the under/over goals market, I can easily see where the line and the odds are coming from. Manchester City is a goal-scoring machine, while Spurs are more than capable of finding the net themselves.
The leaky defense of the home team is a huge reason to believe that there will be goals in this match, so the limit of 3 goals seems like the logical choice for this option.
I must say that I can’t instantly see a solid betting pick for Spurs-City, but let’s complete the analysis by looking at both teams before reaching the final conclusion.
I’ve said a couple of times already this season that Tottenham is not performing as well as the results of the team in the English Premier League suggest. While the attack is producing enough goals most of the time, the defending simply isn’t there.
If you want a game that highlights the problems of Spurs, look no further than their last match against PSV Eindhoven in the UEFA Champions League. The start was bright for Tottenham, and Pochettino’s men controlled the tempo and created a couple of solid chances.
And yet, it was PSV that scored first after a terrible individual mistake by Toby Alderweireld. Spurs kept pushing and eventually turned it around. The team was leading 2-1 half an hour before the final whistle and looking like the more dangerous side.
This is when another error at the heart of the defense lead to a red card for Hugo Lloris. The hosts pushed for an equalizer and found it a couple of minutes before the match finished.
This game might cost them a place in the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League. On top of that, the psychological damage and the fatigue from such an intense game could lead to a disaster against the strong Manchester City team.
I honestly feel that the current Spurs defense simply can’t contain the front line of the champions. They have too many players that can hurt anyone, so I expect Tottenham to concede more than once.
The manager will try to find a way to play a more compact style that will protect the defense and hit on the counter. Such an approach could normally work if Tottenham is at its best, but I simply don’t think that’s the case right now.
What worries me as well is that Harry Kane and some of the other attacking players pushed as hard as possible against PSV without achieving the desired result. There is a possibility for them to be a shadow of themselves on Monday night.
It’s not 100% sure yet if Dele Alli will return from injury for this game, while Christian Eriksen played the full 90 minutes despite his fitness issues in the past couple of weeks. It won’t be completely shocking if none of them actually starts, which would further damage the chances of Tottenham.
The situation at Manchester City looks much better, as the side is leading the way in the English Premier League. A quick look at the stats shows that the reigning champions have both the best defense and the best offense in the league.
Manchester City has scored 26 goals and conceded only 3 in the first 9 games of the season. It’s an impressive feat that suggests that Pep Guardiola’s side is once again the main favorite for the English Premier League crown.
If there is some hope for Tottenham, it’s probably related to the somewhat dull performance of Manchester City in the UEFA Champions League. The side lost on the opening day against Lyon at home and wasn’t that convincing in the second game against Hoffenheim, either.
Even the manager went as far as saying that Manchester City can’t win the Champions League this year. I’m not sure if he is sincere, though, or simply trying to motivate his players to push harder.
Despite the slow start, City is now leading the group after a comfortable win against Shakhtar on Tuesday.
The trip to Ukraine is hardly the most comfortable one, but the team has one more day to recover and prepare compared to Tottenham. On top of that, the intensity of the clash against Shakhtar was nowhere near what Spurs had to face against PSV.
If you add the strength in depth available to Guardiola, I feel that Manchester City will be the fresher team on Monday night.
Considering how strong the attacking line is, I feel that City will create plenty of chances for Aguero, Sterling, Sane, or any of the forwards that start the game. More crucially, I don’t think that Tottenham will have the energy to press the visitors high up the pitch.
As Liverpool has proven in the past couple of years, this is the only way to actually find cracks in the defense of Manchester City. You have to create them yourself by taking full advantage of Pep’s desire to pass the ball from the back.
The English Premier League injury table shows that the only notable miss in City’s squad will be Ilkay Gundogan. The other players Pep Guardiola likes to use are all available, so the manager will have plenty of options when picking the starting lineup for this match.
Furthermore, the bench will include at least a couple of names who can change the game in the heartbeat if Manchester City needs it.
At the start of this Tottenham vs. Manchester City preview, I said that the price of 1.76 for the visitors to win is probably too low. Under normal circumstances, I feel this would be true. However, Spurs weren’t able to rest any players or preserve energy against PSV Eindhoven.
On Wednesday night, Tottenham was trying to fight by the very end with 10 men, which deserves admiration. The problem is that it probably will have a negative impact on the team’s performance against Manchester City.
It’s hard enough to take something from one of the strongest sides in English Premier League history when you are at your best, but the task becomes close to impossible when you carry fatigue and disappointment.
This is why I feel the price of 1.76 offered by BetOnline for the reigning champions to win is actually solid. In my opinion, Spurs won’t be able to impose the relentless pressure that brought them success under Mauricio Pochettino.
As a result, Manchester City will control the game and most probably win it. My correct score prediction would have to be 2-0 for the visitors. Tottenham fans won’t like this, but I could even see a trashing and a much more embarrassing result here if the champions manage to score an early goal.
I don’t think this game will be as competitive as most people expect, but I might be wrong. After all, Spurs have made immense progress under Pochettino. The manager might have some jokers up his sleeves, and he does have a strong squad at his disposal.
However, I think that Spurs are down mentally and physically after the PSV game and won’t be able to recover on time.
Do you agree with me, or do you expect them to actually surprise Manchester City? Let me know in the comments below.
Good luck.
The post Tottenham Hotspur vs. Manchester City – Preview, Prediction, and Betting Pick appeared first on GamblingSites.com.
