Next Saturday, 18th of October 2014, the English champions, Manchester City, will go head-to-head with Tottenham at the Etihad Stadium for round eight of the English Premier League on what will certainly be the most important and exciting match of the weekend between two top quality teams that want to remains on Chelsea’s heels, the team that is currently at the top of the table.

After getting nothing better than a 1-1 draw against AS Roma on their UEFA Champions League clash in the middle of the week, Manchester City apparently managed to put themselves together and granted the three points on their visit to Villa Park over the weekend.

The Citizens started their new season on a good pace with two consecutive wins, including a solid home performance and respective victory over Liverpool. Nevertheless, an unexpected home defeat at the hands of Stoke City on the third round of the EPL has caused some turbulence in the English champions reign. City then embarked on a three match streak without a single win, including two draws and one away defeat at the expenses of Bayern Munich for their first UEFA Champions League clash of the season.

Despite that less impressive period, Manuel Pellegrini’s boys managed to bounce back, at least on domestic competitions, after a storming 7-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday for the Capital One Cup.

For the difficult clash against the Spurs, the Chilean manager will probably not be able to rely on the contribution of Nasri and Fernandinho, who are apparently still recovering from recent injuries.

As for Tottenham, the London team has been experiencing some complicated moments recently, regardless of the fact that they started the season on a good pace. The defeat against Liverpool on the third round of the English Premier League marked the beginning of a very complicated period for Mauricio Pochettino’s boys, as they’ve failed to win their following three league clashes. The considerable amount of matches they had in a short period of time might have somehow pinched the Spurs’ form and, together with the substantial number of players on the injury list each week, it has definitely contributed towards the slowdown experienced by the London team.

Despite of Tottenham’s important win last round against the surprising Southampton team, Manchester City enjoy from a slight favouritism for the next Saturday’s match, however, it is not very likely that they will repeat last season’s performance and respective 6-0 outcome.

Manchester City

Stats: W-3 L-0 D-2

Recent Form - WDWWD

Tottenham

Stats: W-2 L-1 D-2

Recent Form - WDDWL

Possible Line-ups

Manchester City (4-4-2) – Hart - Zabaleta - Kompany - Mangala - Kolarov - Fernando - Touré - Silva - Milner - Dzeko - Aguero

Tottenham (4-4-1-1) - Lloris - Vertonghen - Kaboul - Dier - Rose - Capoue - Mason - Townsend - Eriksen - Lamella - Adebayor

Prediction

Manchester City 1 Tottenham 1