da betobet： Tottenham host Manchester City in the Premier League on Saturday knowing the Wembley visitors are at the most vulnerable they’ve been this season by a considerable distance. Losing three games in a row is unfamiliar territory for not only the Etihad Stadium outfit but also Pep Guardiola, marking the worst run to date of his career.
da betsson： The Lilywhites would love to make it four and put title celebrations on hold for another week. But can the previous encounters between these sides tell us anything about Spurs’ chances of doing so in Saturday’s 7.45pm kickoff? Here’s a look at the complete Premier League history of Tottenham vs Manchester City…
Head-to-Head
Tottenham’s dominance over this fixture, winning more than half of the 41 meetings and almost twice as many as City have, unsurprisingly harks back to the early years of the Premier League. Incredibly, City only won three of their first 27 Premier League encounters with Spurs, the Lilywhites at one point enjoying seven consecutive top flight wins over the Citizens.
But the balance of this tie flipped on its head in 2011, starting with a 1-0 win at the Etihad Stadium the season prior to City lifting their first Premier League title. That game included, City won eight of their next nine against the North Londoners – scoring four goals or more on four occasions.
Spurs though, will still take inspiration for the fact they’ve scored more goals and kept more clean sheets than City down the years, in addition to their impressive win rate on their own patch. City have only ever won four Premier League against Spurs in north London.
Top scorer – Sergio Aguero
Tottenham have boasted some fantastic strike talents during the Premier League era but it’s a modern Manchester City icon who has raked in the most goals in this fixture – somewhat unsurprisingly, Sergio Aguero.
To say the Argentine enjoys scoring against Spurs would be a bit of an understatement; throughout his entire career, he’s only scored more goals against Newcastle. That includes a famous performance in 2014 when Aguero scored past the Lilywhites four times.
Kevin De Bruyne, meanwhile, now boasts three goals and one assists in three outings against Spurs, after scoring in the reverse fixture earlier this season. If he bags a brace on Saturday, he’ll move on level terms with Tottenham fan favourite Robbie Keane.
The north Londoners’ top representative, meanwhile, is Jermain Defoe – he bagged his seven goals in 16 top flight outings versus the Citizens.
The shared villain – Emmanuel Adebayor
A former star both sets of fans will have largely mixed feelings about. Emmanuel Adebayor had an incredible knack of starting life at new clubs with a blaze of form, slowly petering out and quickly becoming a burden for the rest of the team.
At the Etihad Stadium, the Togo striker enjoyed one eventful season of decent form, most famed for his overzealous celebrations upon scoring past former club Arsenal, before plummeting down the pecking order and being loaned out to firstly Real Madrid and then Tottenham Hotspur. And upon moving to White Hart Lane, Adebayor once again sought to impress his new employers with 18 goals during his debut season. But as soon as the deal became permanent, the African’s form quickly soured.
He went on to spend another three seasons in north London without truly holding down a role in the first team before being eventually released in September 2015. For both clubs, Adebayor served a purpose but eventually outstayed his welcome.
Classic contest – Man City 3-2 Tottenham (2012)
The importance of this match was only truly evident at the end of the season, when City beat Manchester United to the title on goal difference alone. That could have panned out incredibly differently, had Roberto Mancini’s side not dug deep to find a winner in quite literally the last second of stoppage time through a Mario Balotelli penalty – leading to a typically iconic pose from City’s one-time badboy.
Incredibly, four of the game’s five goals came in the space of just ten minutes in an explosive second half. First City struck twice through Samir Nasri and a Joleon Lescott tap-in at a corner; but just as the home side had finished celebrating, Harry Redknapp’s boys hit back – Jermain Defoe halved the deficit before Gareth Bale notched up an equaliser moments later.
Eventually then, it came down to Balotelli to break the deadlock – why always him?
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