Tottenham Hotspur are back in Premier League action as they travel to Manchester City on Saturday. How will Jose Mourinho change his team after the midweek defeat?
Spurs crashed out of the FA Cup in entertaining, dramatic circumstances as they lost to Everton FC in a nine-goal thriller. They will be up against the league leaders at the weekend and it will not be easy for them to bounce back.
Tottenham Hotspur at Manchester City FYIs
Kickoff: Sat, Feb 13, 5:30pm GMT, City of Manchester Stadium
Team News: Manchester City Tottenham Hotspur
Starting XI Predictions: Manchester City Tottenham Hotspur
PL Form Guide: Manchester City WWWWW Tottenham Hotspur WLLLW
PL Position: Manchester City 1st, 50 points Tottenham Hotspur 8th, 36 points
The North Londoners currently sit in eighth place and they are 14 points behind City. If they are able to get anything from their trip to Manchester, it will give them a huge boost of confidence. They will have to be at their best both offensively and defensively to pull that off.
Despite the defeat during the week, Mourinho will not be tinkering too much with his defence. The one change that we can expect is Eric Dier to come in for Davinson Sanchez. He will be partnered with Toby Alderweireld.
And as for the full backs, it will once again be Ben Davies on the left and Matt Doherty on the right. Spurs will be in their 4-2-3-1 formation as they look to combat the speed and skill of the City attackers.
Moussa Sissoko will be back in the centre of midfield after being on the bench during the week. Along with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, they will look to be the shield that handles the presence of players like Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan.
One player who will keep his place from Wednesday is Erik Lamela who had an impressive outing at Goodison Park. He will be on the right wing and Heung-min Son will drop to the left this time round. In the centre, it will be Tanguy Ndombele, who is pushed further forward to add some protection.
There will be a lot of pressure on Son to get the goals.
Tottenham will be hoping that this load can be shared by their talisman in attack Harry Kane. He will be leading the charge against City and his full range of skills will be needed for Spurs to get any kind of positive result.
If the North Londoners can play the way they did the last time these two teams met, Mourinho could leave Manchester a happy man.
Predicted Tottenham Starting XI Against Manchester City (4-2-3-1):
Hugo Lloris, Matt Doherty, Eric Dier, Toby Alderweireld, Ben Davies, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Moussa Sissoko, Erik Lamela, Tanguy Ndombele, Heung-min Son, Harry Kane