Tottenham vs Manchester City prediction: ENGLAND: Premier League betting tips on match 2023-02-04 16:30.
Despite manager Antonio Conte spending time away from football as he recovers from surgery, the show must go on for Tottenham Hotspur who will ready themselves to face reigning Premier League (PL) champions Manchester City. After beating Fulham 1-0 in their last PL outing, Spurs sit three points from the Champions League places ahead of the round and thus will know that successive PL victories for the first time since October may prove vital.
The signs are not great for Spurs at first glance after losing four of their last five league home games (W1). A lacklustre defence is perhaps the culprit as Tottenham have conceded the first goal in each of those contests, a rut they have barely seen in the last 20 years having last conceded in six consecutive PL home games back in 2003. Yet football is a funny game, as they say, and no fixture may be quite as peculiar as this one for City boss Pep Guardiola, who has lost each of his four visits to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium without his side scoring, giving Spurs some hope of avoiding that piece of unwanted history and keeping their top-four hopes firmly alive.
That happens to be Guardiola’s most visits to any stadium without winning but this could be the year where that all changes, as despite some indifferent form at times this season, his juggernaut side have racked up 53 PL goals over the first 20 rounds, which has helped them to successive PL wins including a come-from-behind 4-2 home victory over Spurs last month.
The Cityzens followed that up with a 1-0 FA Cup win over PL leaders Arsenal, so they may arrive psychologically primed and hopeful of improving their relatively average away league form this season (W5, D2, L2). For those who like an omen, City beat Spurs’ north London-based rivals Arsenal 2-1 away in their 21st game of the previous PL season, before going on to lose just one of their following 17 games on the way to securing the title!
Key battle: This could be an enthralling duel of two prolific strikers, with in-form Spurs forward Harry Kane needing just one more successful strike to become only the third player to reach 200 PL goals. City’s Erling Haaland smashed his fourth PL hat-trick from just his 19th PL appearance in last round’s 3-0 win over Wolves – a feat no player has managed in fewer games.
Hot stat: Ahead of the round, only City (30) have scored more second-half goals than Tottenham (27) in this league campaign.