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EPL Odds: Spurs Riding High While City Slumps

Don Aguero

by Don Aguero in News

Updated Jan 17, 2018 · 9:39 AM PST

Manchester City (+121) vs Tottenham (+260), Draw (+260)

Tottenham (13-6-2, 35 points) take to Etihad Stadium this Saturday, January 21, to take on Manchester City (13-3-5, 32 points) for the 22nd round of the English Premier League.

Manchester City are reeling after a 4-0 blowout against Everton last week. The bludgeoning not only destroyed City’s ego, it may have also put an end to their title hopes. The Citizens dropped to fifth place in the standings and are now ten full points behind leaders Chelsea.

Pep Guardiola’s attempt to mold City to his system has largely been a failure. The team simply does not have the composure or precision to play his style of football. Where they go from here is anyone’s guess, but the result against Everton was proof that something needs to change.

Changing is easy. Changing successfully is another matter entirely. Guardiola has been making changes throughout the whole season and the team has already been through numerous formation and lineup shifts. The constant flux could be part of the reason why the team has never really seemed comfortable on the field.

City are the only Premier League side to have over 50-percent of possession in every game this season, but whether it’s due to the frenetic nature of English football or the quality of the City squad, it just hasn’t paid off in the ways they had hoped.

Tottenham were also involved in a 4-0 drubbing on the weekend, but the Totties were on the positive side in their match against West Brom thanks to a stunning hat-trick by Harry Kane, who is well and truly back from injury. The win saw them move past Liverpool into second place in the standings thanks to goal differential (+29 versus +24). They have the second-best goal differential in the EPL, just one worse than Chelsea, but remain seven points back of the leaders in the table.

On offense, Kane remains their biggest threat to score, yet the truly scary thing about Tottenham is that they don’t just rely on their star striker. This season has seen plenty of goals from the likes of Dele Alli, Son Heung-Min, and Christian Eriksen as well.

Manchester City will enter Etihad as favorites this weekend but their title chances are more or less nonexistent and the squad lacks the confidence and stability that the Tottenham side has. While Spurs are fighting for their first-ever Premier League title, City will just be trying to break back into the top four. Tottenham have a lot to play for and we shouldn’t rule them out just yet. They look like better value as modest underdogs.

Pick: Tottenham (+260)


Photo credit: “West Ham vs Manchester City” by Joshjds, CC BY-SA 2.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0], via Flickr.

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