Manchester City – Tottenham

The home side will not allow a third straight defeat in official matches

The game between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur in the seventh round of the English Premier League was to be the centrepiece. At the time, the opponents were unbeaten, and Guardiola's side were considered by bookmakers to be the undisputed favourites for the league title. On Thursday, the clubs will meet in a head-to-head encounter under completely different circumstances. The defeat by Manchester United in the Man Utd derby would mark the first time the defending champions have been runners-up since the start of the title race. Previously, despite Arsenal's five to seven point lead in the standings, Manchester City's title win was priced at 1.90, now at 2.45. Tottenham, on the other hand, lost their derby with the Gunners again a few days ago and have started to move further away from the coveted Champions League zone. Manchester City have lost for the first time since the start of the season in two consecutive official matches. In the middle of last week, the team failed to tune up against Southampton in the English League Cup quarter-finals in favour of derby preparations, and on Saturday, they lost the derby itself to Manchester United. And winning the game on the stroke of half-time. The most frustrating thing for the Citizens was that their opponents actually played better and created more chances to score. Such a failure not only extended City's lead over leading Arsenal to eight points, but also brought them within one point of each other at home to Newcastle United. Tottenham have played four games since the end of the Premier League break associated with the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, winning only one of them. Spurs lost their home games against Arsenal and Aston Villa by the same score of 0-2, while they had to bounce back and drew against Brighton. The London club only managed to beat the weakest of their fellow countrymen in the elite division, Crystal Palace. Now Tottenham are five points behind the top-four sides and should expect only a win. Another thing is that Manchester City have no right to lose. And in the last championship, Spurs managed to beat the champion in both meetings. This cannot be ignored by Guardiola when preparing for the match. We're betting that the home side will pull themselves together and secure a confident win over their opponents.