Both Manchester City and Tottenham come into their fixture on Thursday off the back of defeats to local rivals.
After defeat at Old Trafford on Saturday, Pep Guardiola’s men will want to set the record straight by beating a so-called ‘bogey team’ for them in recent years in Tottenham Hotspur. Not only is a win vital to help the Blues back into positive form, but they desperately need three points to keep up with Arsenal in the Premier League title race.
Tottenham possess a lot of talent within their squad with a number of dangermen in particular that will pose City a big threat at the Etihad Stadium.
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Rodrigo Bentancur
The Uruguayan has been at Spurs for a year now and this season has been in impressive form. So far, he is living up to his £21.5m fee and he has managed to add goals to his game this season by scoring four in the lead-up to the World Cup as well as getting two assists.
On top of his impressive passing ability and ball-carrying skills, this has given the former Juventus man a different angle to his game, and the City defence and midfield will need to be on it as he can prove to be a handful for teams to lock down.
Interestingly, he has scored late goals in all competitions this season against Bournemouth, Leeds and Sporting Lisbon which all proved to be very important as one of which was an equaliser and two were game-winning goals. City won't be able to switch off against him.
Dejan Kulusevski
Like Bentancur, Dejan Kulusevski arrived from Juventus on an 18-month loan just under a year ago and has had a good start to life in the Premier League, getting 19 goal contributions in 29 appearances for the North London outfit since he joined.
Creating good chances is his strength as he has 13 assists out of those 19 goal contributions. He has scored six goals in Spurs career, one of which came in a 3-2 victory against Manchester City last season.
Recently returning back to action against Arsenal, Kulusevski has recovered from an ankle injury. The tricky Swede will be looking to haunt that Guardiola’s defence once more as they travel to Manchester on Thursday.
Harry Kane
Even when Tottenham aren’t in great form you can still never bet against Harry Kane from grabbing a goal. He is an essential part of Antonio Conte’s system at Spurs, with his blend of hold-up play, range in passing and finishing ability.
We frequently see Kane drop deep to pick up the ball, and often finds his wingers in either Kulusevski or Heung-Min Son with some sublime passing. This is something which he has gradually developed over the past few seasons and is only now really being appreciated as one of his many skills as a footballer.
Since returning from England duty at the World Cup he has scored four goals in all competitions, taking his total to 17 for the season, with 15 coming in the league. Currently the second top scorer in the league, behind Manchester City’s own, Erling Haaland who sits on 21. If one of Spurs’ wingers deliver the right ball to Kane, he will finish his opportunity.
Tottenham will expect City to have the majority of play, especially as it's at the Ethihad, so when a chance presents itself, Kane will need to be clinical.
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