Sunday afternoon will see the Premier League’s two unbeaten teams go head-to-head as Manchester City travel to Tottenham, and neither side will be interested in losing their record.
Both Mauricio Pochettino and Pep Guardiola have engineered superb starts to the season, with their two sides sitting in second and first respectively.
As is often the case, City will be slight favourites, but there is no reason why Spurs can’t walk away with the three points. In fact, there are several reasons why they can cause an upset.
1 – City’s result against Celtic. The Hoops are nowhere near in Spurs’ class, but they proved that by fighting fire with fire, City can be undone. Given that Pochettino’s men will boast home advantage, they can start on the front foot and take advantage of the visitors’ slow starts.
2 – Kevin de Bruyne is out with the hamstring injury he suffered at Swansea. That’s partly balanced out by the fact that Tottenham are missing Harry Kane, but it’s going to be difficult for City to stretch Spurs’ defence without their key playmaker. Spurs are missing one big goalscorer, but City are arguably missing the engine behind their whole attack.
3 – Heung Min-Son has more than made up for Kane’s absence with five goals in five games. Compare that to City’s recent record of just one clean sheet in the league this season, and he’s a decent bet to get on the scoresheet again.
4 – There’ll be no fear factor for Spurs, who did the double over City last season, beating them 4-1 in the corresponding fixture at White Hart Lane.
5 – If anyone can neutralise the threat of Sergio Aguero and Kelechi Iheanacho, it’s Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen. Spurs should also have their full-backs Danny Rose and Kyle Walker back, and as they haven’t conceded from open play yet this season, they could well be the first side this season to topple Guardiola’s giants.
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