Tottenham v Manchester City preview: City look to bounce back

Tottenham will be looking to inflict a fourth straight defeat on Manchester City when they meet on Saturday night, live on Sky Sports.

City have had a week to forget as they were knocked out of the Champions League by Liverpool on Tuesday, having blown the chance to win the Premier League last weekend after losing to Manchester United.

However, they are still 13 points clear at the top of the table and beat Spurs 4-1 last time they met.

Spurs have not lost in the league since that defeat in December and manager Mauricio Pochettino says City have set the benchmark this season.

"We need to be consistent during the whole season and be the best team like Manchester City is doing today. We need to show ourselves that we can compete.

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"In football in 90 minutes you can win or lose, but we need to be more consistent through the whole season in result and performance because you need to be consistent if you are going to win."

Spurs start the weekend in fourth place in the Premier League and with a 10-point lead over fifth-placed Chelsea.

They have won seven of their last eight games in all competitions and have won their last two home league games against Man City.

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Team news

Manchester City are without top scorer Sergio Aguero (knee), while midfielder Fernandinho is also missing through suspension and defender John Stones is still troubled by a thigh problem.

Left-back Benjamin Mendy, out since September with knee ligament damage, also remains on the sidelines.

Danny Rose will miss out for Tottenham due to a calf injury, though his absence is not expected to be lengthy.

Midfielder Harry Winks is in Qatar seeking answers to an ankle injury while defender Kyle Walker-Peters (hamstring) also misses out.

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Opta facts

City have only won one of their last five Premier League games against Spurs (D1 L3), though it was in the reverse fixture in December.

This will be the third Premier League game to kick-off at this time on a Saturday, after Southampton 4-0 Arsenal (26/12/2015) and Leicester 2-2 Manchester United (23/12/2017).

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Tottenham are unbeaten in their last 14 Premier League games (W11 D3); they last had a longer unbeaten run in the top-flight between January-August 1967 (20 games).

City are looking to avoid back-to-back Premier League defeats for the first time since December 2016.

Only Alan Shearer (14), Wayne Rooney (11) and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (11) have scored more Premier League goals against Spurs than Sergio Aguero has (10). However, the Argentine hasn't scored in any of his last five against them.

Merson's prediction

I don't see how City pick themselves up. They look like they are out on their feet and the last place they want to be going is Tottenham.

They look tired and the manager has also tried to be clever a few times and changed things. Against Liverpool they needed to win by three goals and they had the best attacking right-back in the world playing in a back three. For me, Sergio Aguero has to play as well.

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Pep Guardiola sides have faded in the last few years. At Bayern Munich he lost in the semi-finals of the Champions League and with Man City last season they had a bad run towards the end. It's alright having the ball all the time but they are passing and moving, which is tiring. A lot of their players have played a lot of matches.

I think he got the team wrong at Everton the week before they played Liverpool. The team was too strong. The league was done, they should have rested everybody and if they lose then they lose. I think there have been a few bad decisions in the last month or so and that's where it has gone wrong.

They have been great but if they lose this game it has fizzled out a bit and they haven't shown that real grit too many times this season to turn things around.

PAUL PREDICTS: 3-1 (18/1 with Sky Bet)

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