Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City

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Saturday 17th August 5.30pm
Premier League
Etihad Stadium​

Our first game resulted in our first win and we made very hard work of a resilient Villa side.
City will be a much tougher test, as they demonstrated with their usual demolition job at the Olympic Stadium.
They'll be looking for a fast start to the campaign, as they went to the wire last time and won't want a repeat.
It's our second Saturday evening kick-off already, so we should be getting well used to them.
Can we cause an upset and shake things up or will they continue their normal league form?

City swept the board domestically last season, winning an unprecedented domestic treble.
The only side to stop them winning a trophy was us and it happened in controversial style.
They still didn't sit on their laurels though, strengthening further in the transfer window.
Angelino, Rodri and Cancelo cost about £130m and make their squad even better.

City face Bournemouth and Brighton next, where they'll expect to pick up six points.
This match will be seen as a marker and a potential banana skin, so they'll be going all out from the off.
Our side isn't 100% by a long shot and is missing players to injuries, suspensions and fitness problems.
It's going to be a big ask of Pochettino and his players to get a result, I fear.

Last season's visit to the Etihad was quite a strange one, mainly due to the timing of it.
It came just a few days after we'd put them out of the Champions League at the same venue and it showed.
Foden scored an early goal and many feared a pummeling, but the team recovered and made a game of it.
Ederson put in a MOTM performance to deny Son repeatedly as well as various teammates.
Walker also escaped a good handball call in the box, but the solitary strike remained the difference:

The match at an NFL scarred Wembley was similarly competitive and ended with the same scoreline.
The goal even came at roughly the same time, as a mistake by Trippier resulted in a Mahrez finish.
Both sides had chances to add to the scoreboard, but spurned them time and again.
Lamela's was probably the best of the lot, as a bobble saw him slice over with ten minutes to go:

Son and Foyth serve the last game of their respective suspensions, while the defender is still injured.
Sessegnon and Alli are still out too, while Davies is back in training and may be in contention.
Sane is a long-term injury for City and both Mendy and Cancelo won't feature because of fitness.

Lineups for each side's last league game:

Spurs: Lloris; Walker-Peters, Alderweireld, Sanchez, Rose; Sissoko, Winks, Ndombele, Lamela; Kane, Moura.
Subs: Gazzaniga, Aurier, Dier, Wanyama, Skipp, Eriksen, N'Koudou.

City: Ederson; Walker, Stones, Laporte, Zinchenko; De Bruyne, Rodri, D. Silva; Mahrez, Jesus, Sterling.
Subs: Bravo, Cancelo, Otamendi, Gundogan, B. Silva, Foden, Aguero.

Referee: Michael Oliver.

TV: Sky Sports.

How would you like to see us line up for this one and would you like to see much change from the Villa game?
Which formation and tactics would you go with and would you pick any of the new players?
Should we approach City more defensively, press from the front or go all out and attack them?

 

Beetlejuice ... Beetlejuice ... Spurcat ... < Paul Stewart >

 

Paul Stewart

 

I'm of the opinion we'll probably lose whichever system we go for so let's at least go out in a blaze of glory and scare the crap out of that City defence which looks rather suspect. Eriksen surely needs to start to bolster us in attack. Also please can Jan return to the line up?

Hugo
KWP Toby Jan Rose
Goat Tanguy
Lucas Eriksen Lamela
Kane

Subs: Gazza, Dave, Davies, Winks, Dier, Lo Celso, Parrott.

 

For comparison's sake, here's what the Reddit crowd are suggesting

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They're really not giving up on us playing 433, are they?

 

And two players who aren't available for the match, too. Great stuff.

 

Yeah, but apart from that...

More than anything else, Eriksen is wasted in a deeper midfield role and Alli would be a better shout. And let's not forget that Sissoko is invaluable at babysitting right backs, which we will probably need against The Sheikh Mansour Team as they'll likely target KWP as a potential weak link

 

Would that be the same Son who is suspended?
And the same Dele who is injured ?

 

I noticed that almost every West Ham attack on City resulted in the Hammers having a player on the deck. They are swift and skillful in attack but make up for clear deficiencies in defence by being Pullis like at the back.
Let's test this VAR thing, let's attack the bastards, a couple of penalties could be handy.

 

Pellegrini called them out on it. Whenever anyone counters against them, they just commit a foul and don't get booked.
It's been a feature of Guardiola's teams for years, was highlighted in the TV show about them and yet he still cries if anyone brings it up.

 

I notice the commentators keep telling us that VAR is only there for clear and obvious errors so no doubt it will not make much difference. Or will it?

 

Hey boys, let's not be defeatist! I for one believe Spurs will nick a win. But only if we don't concede an early goal!

Hope GLC features at some stage.

 

Got tickets for this game...Home end, near some corner flag.

Looking forward to hearing some deafening silence around me

 

I think the key here is simple. Spurs have to want it more, as they did in the CL. If the players are organized and determined enough to consistently take away City's space and time, a result will follow--and if not, not. One thing that really helps versus City is press-breaking dribblers.

Lloris
Sissoko Alderweireld Vertonghen Rose
lo Celso Eriksen Ndombele
Moura Kane Lamela

GKN as one of the subs. He was the best player in white when City won comfortably in a Nashville friendly--and Georgiou was the second best.

 

The Cuteh "team fouls" happen in the safety of MF.

Bravery by the ref would to do similar to rugby.
Persistent infringement by a team, and the ref starts
punishing the next player onwards, regardless of what
they in particular have done all game.

 

Hugo
KWP, Toby, Jan, Rose
Sissoko, Tanguy
Lucas, Eriksen, Lamela
Kane

Hope to see Gio feature at some point.

 

I would have thought you guys would recognise this is just the right game for winks to start?

 

The ref being Michael o'liver_pool could be an advantage. Any chance he gets to deny Citeh points to benefit his beloved mousers he will gleefully take.

 

He was the ref there last season and failed to give the Walker handball, so perhaps not.