Manchester City v Spurs: Aiming for a Positive Result

manchester cityHaving left it late to overcome Aston Villa on the first day of the new season, Spurs cannot afford to be slow out of the blocks when they visit Manchester City at the weekend. The reigning Premier League champions started their defence with an efficient, yet brutal demolition of West Ham and Pep Guardiola’s men appear to be the team to beat once again.

Can Tottenham come back from the Etihad with at least a point? Read on to see what the bookies make of it all.

Team News

As usual, this section requires a little bit of educated guesswork. What we do know is that Son Heung-Min remains banned following his sending off at Bournemouth last season while Juan Foyth is both injured and suspended.

On the positive side, we’ll assume that Christian Eriksen is now fit enough for Mauricio Pochettino to use him from the start while new signings Giovani Lo Celso and Ryan Sessegnon should also be available. We’ve yet to find any word on Dele Alli and it could be the case that Pochettino starts with the same XI that began the Villa game with the possible inclusion of Eriksen from the first whistle.

Match Odds

harry kane

Harry Kane

City are some way ahead in the betting markets and the best industry odds for the home win currently sit at 4/11 with Ladbrokes. The draw is on offer at a top price of 23/5 with Unibet while victory for Spurs is way out at a best of 8/1 with Unibet and 888Sport.

Spurs have a reasonable record against Manchester City in recent seasons and, even though we lost both EPL fixtures in 2019/20, they were by the narrowest of 1-0 margins. Then there was the Champions League quarter final where both legs were decided by a single goal – one in our favour and one against.

There’s nothing for us to be afraid of and while the smart money will be on the home win, Tottenham can compete and get something out of this but only if they switch on from the start.

Other Side Bets

There are some pretty prolific strikers in either camp but who sits on top of the first goalscorer betting market? Perhaps not surprisingly, City’s Sergio Aguero leads the way and you can pick up the Argentine at best odds of 100/30 with Betway.

What is surprising is the fact that there are so many Manchester City players ahead of our main striker. Raheem Sterling follows at 7/2 with Bethard and you can also claim Gabriel Jesus at that same 7/2 with William Hill.

We’ve not yet reached Harry Kane and even Bernado Silva at 7/1 with 10Bet and Riyad Mahrez at best odds of 15/2 with Betway are ahead. To be fair to Mahrez, he did score the only goal at Wembley in last season’s league encounter so maybe that’s not a bad price.

Finally, we come to Kane who can be backed at best industry odds of 8/1 with Unibet and 888Sport. We’ve practically mentioned the entire Manchester City team up to this point but other options for Spurs might include Lucas Moura at 13/1 with Unibet and Christian Eriksen at 18/1 with Coral.

Other common side bets might include Both Teams to Score which is quoted at a top price of 4/5 with SportingBet while the ‘No’ option in this market is just above Even Money at 21/20 with RedZoneSports.

Elsewhere, many punters will look at this game and assume that Over 2.5 goals is a safe bet. The bookmakers tend to agree with a best price available for this option at 8/15 with SportNation, but if we remember that three of the four games between Spurs and City finished 1-0 last season, we may want to go under. Backing Under 2.5 goals is available at 7/5 with Betway.

Finally for this section, the Correct Score betting shows 2-1 to City at 7/1 with 888Sport while the same scoreline in favour of Spurs can be picked up at a distant 24/1 with 10Bet. Of course, we can’t cover every option in this round up but those picks may be among the most popular for Saturday’s game.

Dangerman

We’re likely to abandon this section for some games as the dangerman should be obvious at times. The only question with Manchester City is that Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus rarely start together so who will lead the line on Saturday?

Mahrez is a threat from further back but perhaps the player to watch is Raheem Sterling. The England international took the headlines with his opening day hat trick against West Ham – a feat that we could all enjoy. We won’t be as happy if he finds the scoresheet again and it should be remembered that Sterling scored 25 goals in 51 games last season.

Head to Head

tottenhamManchester City’s three wins over Spurs last season mean that they now take a slender lead in the head to head stats. Of 159 games between the two sides, City have won 63, Spurs have claimed victory in 61 and there have been 35 draws.

The away leg of last season’s Champions League final was technically a defeat – even though it was also a draw and a sweet victory all rolled into one. It also means that we’ve won just one of the previous six matches against these opponents so while our record against the Champions was good during the Premier League era, we’ve struggled during Pep Guardiola’s reign – as most sides have.

Verdict

We’re not falling in to fate’s trap of backing up our hopes for the draw with a confirmed tip. If Spurs turn up and the formation is right from the start this time, we know that we can match their quality in key areas.

Harry Kane needs to be on target with every opportunity and that 8/1 on the England captain to score the opening goal is a standout price. While Mahrez, Bernado Silva and others may be ahead of him, only Raheem Sterling and whoever starts out of Aguero and Jesus should really be ahead of Harry.

We also think it will be tight with just one goal likely to separate the two teams. You could take City to win by one at an odds on price or, you could switch to Spurs by the same margin and secure something much longer. However, in the winning margin betting, Betway have a price of 2/1 on either side to claim it by a solitary goal and that could be a profitable way to soften an unwelcome early blow in the 2019/20 campaign.

Best Bets:

  • Harry Kane to score the first goal at 8/1 with Unibet
  • Winning Margin of One Goal (Either Side) at 2/1 with Betway

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