Can Ange Postecoglou make it four Premier League wins in a row? We look ahead to Wednesday’s clash with our Tottenham vs Manchester City prediction and preview.
Tottenham vs Man City Stats: The Key Insights
The Opta supercomputer expects an away win, with Manchester City triumphing in 46.7% of pre-match simulations.
Tottenham could become the first side to beat both Manchester sides three times each in a single campaign across all competitions.
City have failed to win any of their last three Premier League away games against London teams (D2 L1), having won six in a row before this.
Manchester City will hope to get back on track after a disappointing week. Pep Guardiola’s side went crashing out of the UEFA Champions League at the hands of Real Madrid, before a 2-0 defeat to runaway leaders Liverpool on Sunday at the Etihad Stadium.
City will hope to regroup for Wednesday night’s trip to a resurgent Tottenham.
Erling Haaland sat out of both defeats last week but Guardiola hopes to have his talisman back from a knee injury at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. John Stones limped off at the Santiago Bernabéu, joining Rodri, Oscar Bobb and Manuel Akanji as long-term absentees.
Man City will be eager for the return of Haaland, who has scored six goals in five Premier League games in London this season. Only former Leeds United striker Tony Yeboah has scored more in the capital in a single campaign among players to play for non-London sides (8 in 1995-96) in the competition’s history.
Haaland also needs just one strike on the road to make it 10+ home goals and 10+ away goals in three different Premier League campaigns (also 2022-23 and 2023-24). The only player to have ever done so in three consecutive seasons is former Spurs star Harry Kane (2015-16 to 2017-18).
However, City’s record in the capital leaves a lot of questions for Guardiola. They have failed to win any of their last three top-flight away games against London sides, drawing with Crystal Palace and Brentford before losing to Arsenal. City had won six in a row against capital-city clubs before this in the competition. They last had a longer run without a league win in London between February and November 2020 (4), while they last did so in the same season in 2014-15 (5).
Changing that record against an in-form Spurs could prove a tough task. Ange Postecoglou’s side have quietened their critics with three straight league wins over Brentford, Manchester United and Ipswich Town, as many victories as they’d managed in their previous 15 games (D2 L10).
Brennan Johnson scored twice, along with goals for Djed Spence and Dejan Kulusevski, as Tottenham hammered relegation-threatened Ipswich 4-1 on Saturday. That win lifted them to 12th, though they have not won four in a row since September/October 2023.
Son Heung-min teed up both Johnson goals against Ipswich, taking him to nine assists in the 2024-25 competition. Only in 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2023-24 has he provided more in a single campaign in the Premier League (10 each time).
After winning the reverse fixture in November as well as eliminating them from the EFL Cup, beating City again on Wednesday would make Tottenham the first team to beat both Manchester sides three times each in a single campaign across all competitions. They have already overcome Man Utd on three separate occasions this season.
Postecoglou will aim for that piece of history without first-choice defenders Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero, as well as Dominic Solanke, Richarlison and Radu Dragusin. Timo Werner is back in training and could return to the squad.
Tottenham vs Man City Head-to-Head
Tottenham are looking to do the league double over Man City for the first time since the 2021-22 season, while they last did so without conceding in the 2009-10 campaign.
A stunning performance at the Etihad in November saw Spurs thrash City 4-0, with goals from Johnson, James Maddison (2) and Pedro Porro.
They also beat City 2-1 in the EFL Cup, thanks to goals from Werner and Pape Sarr before Matheus Nunes’ consolation strike.
The last team to win three games in a campaign against the reigning English champions was Man Utd (vs Man City in 2019-20), while the last time Spurs did so was in 1984-85 (vs Liverpool).
City won this exact fixture 2-0 last season, however, as Haaland’s double propelled them towards the title. Guardiola’s side had lost each of their first four league meetings at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium without scoring.
Tottenham vs Man City Prediction
The Opta supercomputer backed Guardiola’s side for victory as Man City claimed all three points in 46.7% of 10,000 pre-match simulations.
Tottenham still hold a 30% likelihood of doing the double over the reigning champions, while the draw came in at 23.2%.
Tottenham vs Man City Predicted Lineups
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off on Wednesday, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.