Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson has backed Tottenham to beat Manchester City 2-1 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Tottenham Hotspur have enjoyed a mini-resurgence in the Premier League of late, having registered three consecutive wins over Brentford, Manchester United and Ipswich Town.
There have been plenty of positives to take from the last two outings against Man United and Ipswich Town, with the return of key players leading to the kind of cohesion, tempo, fluidity and energy that we have not seen from Ange Postecoglou’s side over recent months.
Things do not get easy for the Spurs as they will host Manchester City at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Wednesday evening. They will be hoping to extend their Premier League winning run to four games by beating Man City, who have been extremely poor by their high standards.
Ange Postecoglou and Co. will not be short of confidence, having already smashed the Sky Blues 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League and eliminated them from the Carabao Cup. Thus, a win for Tottenham in midweek would represent a clean sweep over Pep Guardiola’s side this season.
Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson has now dropped his prediction for the mouthwatering contest at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. He thinks Tottenham will cause problems for City and backed the home side to win 2-1.
“I expect Tottenham to trouble City. If Erling Haaland isn’t fit and it becomes an end-to-end game, I have to back Spurs for the win. City have no firepower, they don’t look like scoring at all! The new signings have not worked for them either,” Paul Merson wrote in his column for Sportskeeda.
“City can still finish in the top four, but they have some tricky fixtures against Nottingham Forest and Brighton. If they fail to beat Spurs, they could be playing catch up to other teams by the time they face these sides and that’s never a good thing.
“Tottenham’s front three have goals in them and with Son Heung-min playing with a lot of confidence, Spurs will definitely trouble City.”
Spurs have been a real thorn for City in recent years. Even when this City side was at the peak of its powers and destroying teams left, right and centre, Tottenham often troubled them and found a way to win games—both at home and away.
The two sides have won two games each and drawn the other in their last five encounters at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. However, Guardiola’s men have been struggling for form in recent games and look extremely vulnerable defensively. They head to north London on the back of back-to-back defeats to Real Madrid and Liverpool.
The English champions are looking to recover from a rough few weeks, and with Erling Haaland a big doubt, they may have to rely on other stars for goals in midweek. Meanwhile, the Lilywhites are riding high following three league wins on a trot, and with several players returning from injuries recently, they are finally starting to look like a proper team again.
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Big Ange’s side would fancy their chances against a porous City defence, hoping to set a record of beating the Sky Blues thrice in a single season. As the momentum is currently with Spurs, it is difficult to not back them from getting all three points.
