The famous busy festive period in the Premier League has officially begun and two of the top flight’s strongest sides meet on Saturday. An out-of-form Tottenham Hotspur side travel north to face one of Europe’s hottest teams and the league leaders, Manchester City. The hosts are yet to have lost a league game with 16 wins and one draw while Spurs are 4^th, just inside the Champions League places on goal difference.

STATS

• There aren’t many better teams in the world than Man City right now and with 15 consecutive league wins, they have set a new record of most Premier League wins in a row. Their 2-1 domination of Manchester United in the derby a couple of weeks ago shows just how good they have been. They eased past Swansea in their last match as they win 4-0 in Wales.
• Tottenham have struggled to balance life in Europe with life in the Premier League and aren’t showing the form they showed last term. They have won their last in the league (against Stoke and Brighton) but before those, they went four without a win which saw them lose ground on the league’s leading pack. On Wednesday night, they won 2-0 against Brighton at home.
• Despite Gabriel Jesus’ run of matches in the team, Sergio Aguero is still City’s leading scorer and with 10 goals, only two top flight players have more goals.
• One of those is Harry Kane, who is having another great season in front of goal. He has 12 league goals, Mohamed Salah is the only player with more.

HEAD TO HEAD

Tottenham have enjoyed some good recent results against Man City and in the last two seasons, they have won three of the four fixtures with a draw in the most recent meeting. Before this, it was City who were on a run of four straight wins against Spurs, where they scored 16 goals. Five out of the last seven matches between the two sides have seen goals from both sides. The last meeting was almost a year ago in January and goals from Leroy Sane and Kevin de Bruyne were cancelled by goals from Dele Alli and Heung-Min Son.

MANCHESTER CITY NEWS

Another win for Man City would keep them on their way to an unbeaten season and with an 11-point gap between them and second-placed Man United, it won’t be long before the title is put out of doubt. They are without Vincent Kompany, John Stones and Benjamin Mendy, all through injury.

Latest matches: Manchester City

13.12.2017	Prem	Swansea City	Manchester City	0:4	W
10.12.2017	Prem	Manchester United	Manchester City	1:2	W
06.12.2017	UEFA	FC Shakhtar Donetsk	Manchester City	2:1	L
03.12.2017	Prem	Manchester City	West Ham United	2:1	W
29.11.2017	Prem	Manchester City	Southampton FC	2:1	W

TOTTENHAM NEWS

Three points for Spurs won’t see them move up the table but it could give them breathing space from Liverpool if the Reds drop points. They will struggle against a strong Man City attack without star defender, Toby Alderweireld and with no Victor Wanyama protecting the backline.

Latest matches: Tottenham Hotspur

13.12.2017	Prem	Tottenham Hotspur	Brighton & Hove Albion FC	2:0	W
09.12.2017	Prem	Tottenham Hotspur	Stoke City	5:1	W
06.12.2017	UEFA	Tottenham Hotspur	Apoel Nicosia FC	3:0	W
02.12.2017	Prem	Watford FC	Tottenham Hotspur	1:1	D
28.11.2017	Prem	Leicester City	Tottenham Hotspur	2:1	L

SUMMARY

This won’t be as routine for Man City as some of their wins on this fantastic run but they are still strong favourites to extend the record they currently hold. Spurs will be looking to catch the hosts on the break but the pressure of City’s organised attacking play should be too much for them to cope, especially away from home. Mauricio Pochettino must get his tactics spot on and if he doesn’t, his side could be on the receiving end of a convincing win.