Manchester City should have their way at Wembley

Premier League
Sky Sports Premier League & Main Event, 8.00pm Monday

Manchester City are matching Liverpool stride for stride in the Premier League title race and the champions can climb back above the Reds by beating Tottenham at Wembley.

While there has been a lopsided look to the title betting, with City and Liverpool attracting most of the attention, the table has been fairly tight with five teams making strong starts.

Spurs have made their best ever opening to a Premier League campaign and have a fantastic incentive knowing that a victory would lift them above City.

However, instead of a sense of expectation there is a realistic view that there will be no new order to the Premier League hierarchy.

Tottenham have been piling up points thanks to several unconvincing victories.

They have ridden their luck on numerous occasions and were thankful for a man-of-the-match performance by Hugo Lloris when winning 1-0 at West Ham last time out in the league.

Lloris went from hero to villain in the Champions League on Wednesday, dashing from his goal and picking up a red card in a damaging 2-2 draw away to PSV Eindhoven.

The Spurs captain also made a calamitous error in the first minute of the 4-2 loss at home to Barcelona on matchday two and his struggles have been a major feature of Tottenham's European issues.

Qualification for the Champions League knockout stages looks extremely unlikely with Spurs as big as 9-2 to progress although there were some positives to take out of the PSV performance which featured some incisive, attacking football.

Christian Eriksen's return to the starting 11 made a huge difference and Spurs were handed another injury boost with Dele Alli back in full training.

Mauricio Pochettino is not too far away from selecting a full-strength attack but his defence, weakened by the ongoing absence of Jan Vertonghen, looks vulnerable against elite opposition.

Barca should have beaten Spurs by a much wider margin and Liverpool were totally dominant for large parts of their 2-1 success Wembley last month.

The worry for Spurs is that City, recently reinforced by the return of Kevin De Bruyne, are arguably stronger than Barcelona and Liverpool.

The Citizens are two points worse off than at the same stage of last season but there has been no discernible drop in standards.

They looked the more accomplished side in a 0-0 draw at Liverpool earlier this month and passed a tough Champions League test with ease last Tuesday, winning 3-0 away to Shakhtar Donetsk.

Pep Guardiola's toughest task is deciding which top-class players to leave out.

Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and De Bruyne were benched for last weekend's 5-0 success at home to Burnley, while Vincent Kompany, Bernardo Silva, Leroy Sane and Sergio Aguero were left out in Ukraine.

However, it is virtually impossible for Guardiola to pick anything other than a strong side and he should come up with a winning combination even though the visitors will be concerned at the state of the pitch after Sunday's NFL match at Wembley.

Recommendation
Manchester City
1pt 3-4 bet365, Betfair, Betfred

Bet on this game at Soccerbase.com

Team news
Tottenham
Dele Alli (hamstring) is training and a decision will be made on whether he rejoins the squad. Jan Vertonghen (hamstring) and Danny Rose (groin) are out.

Manchester City
Kyle Walker (groin) and Fabian Delph (minor injury) are available but Danilo (ankle) is a doubt. Ilkay Gundogan (hamstring) is sidelined and Claudio Bravo and Eliaquim Mangala are long-term absentees.

Key stat
Manchester City have won eight of their last ten Premier League away games.

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