Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur: Any Chance of a Boost at the Etihad?

manchester cityIt’s been a pretty dismal few weeks in what has been another rollercoaster of a season. Three straight league defeats see Spurs floundering in the race for the final Champions League slot – although dropping down to eighth might just be a positive in terms of missing out on the dreaded Europa Conference League.

When you’re on a bad run, Manchester City away isn’t the fixture that you really want but you’ll run into them eventually. In the meantime, Tottenham should be looking to take advantage of their winnable home games such as those that we’ve encountered since the start of February.

Swiftly moving on, let’s try to keep this upbeat as we preview Saturday’s 5.30 kick off at The Etihad.

Team News

Some statistics emerged after the Wolves game that looked to underline Oliver Skipp’s value to the team. Without going into great detail, we simply win more games and concede fewer goals when he’s on the pitch.

It seems likely that we’ll have to cope without Skippy for a little bit longer although he has been tentatively pencilled in for a return on Sunday. In fact, the injury news is similar to that which appeared ahead of that Wolves match with both Eric Dier and Japhet Tanganga listed as doubtful.

Elsewhere, there are no new injury reports and no suspensions ahead of the game.

Match Odds

There are no surprises in the match betting with Manchester City down as red hot favourites to claim all three points. The home win is on offer at 1/4 with Coral and Betway while the draw comes next at best odds of 5/1 with Unibet. Finally, victory for Spurs is out at a top price of 12/1 with Ladbrokes.

harry kane tottenham spurs

Harry Kane

Those figures mirror our own run of three straight league defeats but they also underline City’s dominance in recent weeks. Pep Guardiola’s men are top of the overall table and they also head the form table with five league wins and a draw from their last six matches.

It’s clearly a tough assignment but can there be hope of a draw at the very least?

Side Markets

This is one of those matches where Harry Kane appears some way down the list in the first goalscorer market. Harry can be claimed at best odds of 10/1 with Unibet and 888Sport while City’s Raheem Sterling starts as favourite at a top price of 5/1 with VBet. Riyad Mahrez is the next available option at a best of 26/5 with VBet once again.

As for other options within the Spurs camp, Son Heung-Min has a good record against Manchester City and is available to open the scoring at 12/1 with Unibet. Elsewhere, you can take Steven Bergwijn at a best of 20/1 with Unibet or Lucas Moura at a top price of 25/1 with MansionBet.

Moving on, Both Teams to Score can be backed in this game at 12/11 with VBet. That market doesn’t head above Even Money too often and it suggests that the bookies aren’t too confident about our chances of finding the net. As the alternative, you can take the ‘No’ option on BTTS for best odds of 4/5 with BetFred.

Across in the Total Combined Goals betting, a stake Over the 2.5 line will currently return best odds of 3/5 with Betway. Pushing that to Over 3.5 will attract 6/4 with MansionBet and SportNation but if you wanted to go Under 2.5 goals, that jumps to a top price of 29/20 with Novibet.

Finally, our look at the Correct Score betting starts with a relatively optimistic suggestion. In the event of a high scoring draw, a 2-2 final outcome is on offer here at 25/1 with QuinnBet and BetFred. If you’re hopeful of a 2-1 away win then you can pick this up at 33/1 with Ladbrokes while the same outcome in favour of Manchester City is available at 9/1 with 10Bet.

Last Season

There are times when it’s tempting to skip this section and this is one of those weeks. Last season’s corresponding fixture at the Etihad ended in a 3-0 home win when the sides met on February 13th. There’s also the EFL Cup final loss to digest from a few weeks later.

Overall, we have one of the better records against City since the club became one of the richest in the world. If we go back one more season, A VAR assisted performance away from home ended in a 2-2 draw. Spurs have also won all four of their most recent home matches against Saturday’s opponents but our record away from home isn’t as encouraging.

Verdict

tottenhamWe really do try to keep things upbeat but it’s been a difficult few weeks. Three straight defeats in the league, together with the manager criticising the board’s transfer policy doesn’t make for a happy build up to the most difficult league fixture of the season.

We’ve come back from the Etihad with positive results in recent years but it is difficult to see us claiming a point. We do hope we are wrong but we suspect it’s a case of damage limitation before aiming to get our top four hopes back on track with some more winnable games.

For now, we’ll sign off with some tips. We do have hope that Spurs can get on the scoresheet and it seems inevitable that we will concede so we’ll start with Both Teams to Score. A goal or two from Tottenham will also help the Over 3.5 goals bet to come in.

Who will score from within the Spurs camp? There are good prices for all our players but Son Heung-Min has such a good record against City that he’s difficult to ignore. That’s as positive as it gets from us but you never know.

Best Bets

  • Both Teams to Score at 12/11 with VBet
  • Over 3.5 Goals at 6/4 with MansionBet
  • Son Heung-Min to score at any time in 90 minutes at 21/5 with Unibet

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