Tottenham v Man City: Mourinho's men to keep City in-sight

TOTTENHAM host Manchester City on Super Sunday. We asked Tom Love (@TomLove_18) to source the best bets from the Premier League encounter.

Tottenham v Manchester City | Sunday 2nd February 2020, 16:30 | Sky Sports

Super Sunday is rounded off with a big tie between two of last season's top four as Tottenham welcome Manchester City to their brand spanking new stadium.

It’s probably fair to say that the football being served up by Jose Mourinho isn’t quite as glamorous as the £1 billion structure but I suppose he’s trying to take small steps into what he wants to do there in what is a mixed season thus far.

I can’t say I’m a big fan of the ‘Special One’ but he always tries to start from defence when building a team; Spurs’ first-choice back four is ageing and neither Juan Foyth and Davinson Sanchez look totally reliable when they come into the fray. Having said that, Mourinho got his side as a collective to be set-up in a compact, stubborn formation in order to try and thwart the relentless Liverpool.

Naturally the Reds took their moment through Roberto Firmino but Spurs defended well and kept big chances to a minimum and I expect a similar set-up here.

Man City progressed to another final midweek after scraping past Manchester United over two legs by and aggregate score of 3-2. It was far from convincing from Pep Guardiola’s troops who looked slightly confused as to how to deal with a mediocre United outfit.

Despite having an outrageous set of underlying numbers, City still fail to be wholly resounding. Whether that be a haphazard defence left vulnerable on the counter attack, or just not making the most of their plentiful opportunities in the final third, by their standard this campaign will not be judged as one of their best.

Against low blocks with a five-man defence City can find it difficult and I would be surprised if Jose doesn’t implement that formation here and try utilise the pace of Lucas Moura and Heung Min-Son on the counter. I would still expect City to eventually win this one given the ingenuity of Kevin De Bruyne and movement of Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus in the box. However, I could see this being a bit of a training session, attack versus defence, for the most part.

With that in mind, I took a look at the Asian Goal line and it looks a high one at 3.25 and given that I’ll take the unders at 17/20 (Bet365), It basically means we make money if fewer than four goals are scored here with a half win if exactly three are scored or a full pay-out if fewer than three are notched.

Obviously City are notorious with goals but given the way Jose set up his side against Liverpool I’d be surprise if the net burst on more than three occasions.

Following on similar lines I do think the Half Time Draw looks a touch big at 13/8 (SkyBet). Spurs would certainly take that at the break and given the calibre of opposition I think City probably will too, they may have to bide their time to make the breakthrough.