Man City v Tottenham preview: Can Spurs dent City's title hopes?
Those results mean Pep Guardiola’s men come into this contest eight points behind the league leaders and are in danger of falling as low as fourth by the end of next weekend if they drop more points.
Discussing issues in attack and in getting key man Erling Haaland on the ball, highlighted by three consecutive league outings without multiple goals for the first time since September 2021, Guardiola admitted that his side may "need to find him a little bit more in the final third."
Desperate to get back on track, the City boss may not appreciate facing a Tottenham team that could become the first-ever opponent to hand Guardiola three straight managerial head-to-head league defeats.
While Spurs may take some comfort from 'doing the double' over City last season, it may not be enough to see them arrive at the Etihad in a confident mood. When this contest was originally scheduled to take place in September, Tottenham could have finished the day top of the table had they won, yet they’re now five points short of the top four.
Manager Antonio Conte did not downplay the difficulty of this assignment following their 0-2 North London derby loss to Arsenal, marking the Gunners and Manchester City as "the only two teams that are going to fight for the Premier League this season". Should they concede yet another opening goal, after having done so in eight of their last nine PL games, that certainly won’t make the task easier.
Players to watch: Rested in the defeat at Old Trafford, City midfielder İlkay Gündoğan has been on the scoresheet in two of the last three Premier League head-to-heads. Spurs attacker Son Heung-min has a similarly prolific record, with goals in three of his five most recent Premier League head-to-head starts. However, he has scored just one goal from his last five competitive outings.
Hot stat: City have failed to register more than three shots on target on five occasions in the league this season - three of those came in their last three outings.
