A pair of derby day losers will meet on Thursday looking to pick up the pieces as Spurs arrive at the Etihad Stadium.
It was a red weekend in the Premier League as City slipped on their lead to lose 2-1 to Manchester United before Arsenal took another giant leap towards the title with a convincing 2-0 win over Spurs.
Pep Guardiola’s men start this midweek game eight points behind Arsenal and are in danger of falling as low as fourth by the end of next weekend if they drop more points.
Erling Haaland saw little of the ball and Guardiola admitted that his side may “need to find him a little bit more in the final third.”
And now Pep faces a team with good historical energy. The visitors did the double last season and could could become the first ever opponent to hand Guardiola three straight managerial head to head league defeats.
This match was originally scheduled to take place in September. A lot has changed forTottenham since. They could have finished the day top of the table had they won but now they are five points short of the top four.
Manager Antonio Conte must act quick to avoid his side becoming anonymous in the top four race. Problems at the back are profound. 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.
City midfielder İlkay Gündoğan has been on the scoresheet in two of the last three matches against Spurs. The same can be said of Son Heung-min, he has goals in three of his five most recent starts against City. Son needs goals, he has scored just one goal from his last five competitive outings.