Man C vs Spurs half-time draw on the cards

  Manchester City vs Tottenham Hotspur

After an international break with upset after upset it's time to return to domestic action and we begin the Premier League action this weekend with a lunchtime fixture away to Manchester City.

The match previews thus far, based around statistics rather than anything else, have generally been fairy accurate, roughly what should happen in games has been happening. Spurs have been struggling to score, we have been scoring in the second half, opposition have been scoring when statistics say they should and the half-time scores are as have been expected.

Indeed I'm beginning to think I should start keeping a note of all the games and the expected half-time scores as there may be an opportunity there to make a profit. However let's get back to this week's preview.

Manchester City have only suffered 1 defeat in their 7 games and have won their last 2, yet have only won 1 of their 3 home games. Tottenham have only won 1 of the last 5 games and only won 1 of our 3 away games, but we are also unbeaten away and have scored first in each of these games while Manchester City have conceded a goal in all 3 home games.

A ray of hope.

TEAM NEWS

• Manchester City could rest Yaya Toure as the Ivory Coast midfielder is not due back from international duty until Friday.
• On-loan Frank Lampard could start in midfield.
• Tottenham have doubts over Hugo Lloris and Nacer Chadli, both picked up injuries on international duty.
• Kyle Naughton is out with an ankle problem.
• Kyle Walker remains sidelined with a long-term injury
• Emmanuel Adebayor and Nabil Bentaleb return late from international duty in Africa and will need to be assessed.

Current Form

Green = Win, Yellow = Draw, Pink = Lost

Manchester City (2nd)

Sat. 18 Oct 2014

Tottenham (6th)

Last 7 matches

4 Oct	Aston Villa - MAN C	0-2		1-0	SPURS - Southampton	5 Oct
27 Sep	Hull City - MAN C	2-4		1-1	Arsenal - SPURS	27 Sep
21 Sep	MAN C - Chelsea	1-1		0-1	SPURS - WBA	21 Sep
13 Sep	Arsenal - MAN C	2-2		2-2	Sunderland - SPURS	13 Sep
30 Aug	MAN C - Stoke City	0-1		0-3	SPURS - Liverpool	31 Aug
25 Aug	MAN C - Liverpool	3-1		4-0	SPURS - QPR	24 Aug
17 Aug	Newcastle U - MAN C	0-2		0-1	West Ham U - SPURS	16 Aug

Home vs Away Form

Last 3 matches (Home)

Last 3 matches (Away)

21 Sep	MAN C - Chelsea	1-1		1-1	Arsenal - SPURS	27 Sep
30 Aug	MAN C - Stoke City	0-1		2-2	Sunderland - SPURS	13 Sep
25 Aug	MAN C- Liverpool	3-1		0-1	West Ham U - SPURS	16 Aug

Home Table     P W D L Pts 1 Chelsea 4 4 0 0 12 2 Manchester U 4 3 0 1 9 3 Southampton 3 2 1 0 7 4 Swansea City 4 2 1 1 7 5 Liverpool 4 2 1 1 7 6 Leicester City 4 1 3 0 6 7 Sunderland 4 1 3 0 6 8 West Ham U 4 2 0 2 6 9 Tottenham 4 2 0 2 6 10 Arsenal 3 1 2 0 5 11 Hull City 4 1 2 1 5 12 WBA 3 1 1 1 4 13 Manchester City 3 1 1 1 4 14 Crystal Palace 3 1 1 1 4 15 QPR 3 1 1 1 4 16 Aston Villa 4 1 1 2 4 17 Stoke City 3 1 0 2 3 18 Newcastle U 3 0 2 1 2 19 Burnley 3 0 2 1 2 20 Everton 3 0 1 2 1

Away Table     P W D L Pts 1 Manchester City 4 3 1 0 10 2 Chelsea 3 2 1 0 7 3 Southampton 4 2 0 2 6 4 Aston Villa 3 2 0 1 6 5 Arsenal 4 1 2 1 5 6 Everton 4 1 2 1 5 7 Tottenham 3 1 2 0 5 8 Stoke City 4 1 2 1 5 9 West Ham U 3 1 1 1 4 10 Hull City 3 1 1 1 4 11 Swansea City 3 1 1 1 4 12 Crystal Palace 4 1 1 2 4 13 WBA 4 1 1 2 4 14 Liverpool 3 1 0 2 3 15 Leicester City 3 1 0 2 3 16 Sunderland 3 0 2 1 2 17 Manchester U 3 0 2 1 2 18 Burnley 4 0 2 2 2 19 Newcastle U 4 0 2 2 2 20 QPR 4 0 0 4 0

Previous Encounters

Manchester City were purchased in August 2008, therefore form prior to this is not really relevant given the difference in financial status. In financial trouble before, they now had money pumped in and have breached Financial Fair Play rules with their spending. They negotiated a penalty that frankly has little effect and have now complained about even receiving that.

Manchester City - W6 D1 L5 F25 A16 PTS 19
Tottenham Hotspur - W5 D1 L6 F16 A25 PTS 16

That does rather give a misleading impression though as Manchester City have been dominant recently with 1-5, 6-0, 2-1, 3-2, 1-5, 1-0 victories compared with our solitary 3-2 win in 2012.

RECENT ENCOUNTERS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE

29 Jan 14 Tottenham - Manchester C. 1-5 24 Nov 13 Manchester C. - Tottenham 6-0 21 Apr 13 Tottenham - Manchester C. 3-1 11 Nov 12 Manchester C. - Tottenham 2-1 22 Jan 12 Manchester C. - Tottenham 3-2 28 Aug 11 Tottenham - Manchester C. 1-5 10 May 11 Manchester C. - Tottenham 1-0 14 Aug 10 Tottenham - Manchester C. 0-0 5 May 10 Manchester C. - Tottenham 0-1 16 Dec 09 Tottenham - Manchester C. 3-0 16 May 09 Tottenham - Manchester C. 2-1 9 Nov 08 Manchester C. - Tottenham 1-2

The Attack vs Defence Tables

Manchester City sit only below Chelsea in the attacking table while Tottenham sit second in the defensive table but the only top four contender we have player we could easily have been hammered again so while the table looks good I wouldn't be placing much store by it at the moment.

Attacking Table
		P	G
1	Chelsea	7	21
2	Manchester City	7	14
3	Everton	7	13
4	Manchester U	7	13
5	West Ham U	7	12
6	Arsenal	7	11
7	Hull City	7	11
8	Leicester City	7	11
9	Southampton	7	11
10	Crystal Palace	7	10
11	Liverpool	7	10
12	Swansea City	7	10
13	Tottenham	7	9
14	Sunderland	7	8
15	WBA	7	8
16	Newcastle U	7	7
17	Stoke City	7	6
18	Aston Villa	7	4
19	QPR	7	4
20	Burnley	7	3

Defence Table
		P	G
1	Southampton	7	5
2	Tottenham	7	7
3	Sunderland	7	7
4	Manchester City	7	7
5	Chelsea	7	7
6	Swansea City	7	8
7	Stoke City	7	8
8	WBA	7	9
9	Aston Villa	7	9
10	Arsenal	7	9
11	West Ham U	7	10
12	Manchester U	7	10
13	Liverpool	7	10
14	Burnley	7	10
15	Hull City	7	11
16	Leicester City	7	12
17	Crystal Palace	7	12
18	Newcastle U	7	14
19	QPR	7	15
20	Everton	7	16

THBN Verdict

The Premier League is a two tier league, the top teams the rest, mind you the rest you can split into top 7 and the rest. Tottenham hover in the top 7 team bracket at the moment and thus are expected to beat the rest, things never turn out that way though.

The manner in which Liverpool ripped us apart again gives us no hope, the manner in which we defended against Arsenal gives us hope. It's really a question of which you latch on to.

The statistics tell us that Manchester City concede at home and their opponents score first 66.67% of the time while Tottenham score first away from home 100%. Certainly a bit of hope there to suggest we can score.

Manchester City have had a lead at half-time once (33.33%) at home and Tottenham haven't had a lead away so a draw at half-time the statistics say is a strong possibility. 75% of their home goals have been scored in the second half and they have conceded 100% of the goals in the second-half.

Tottenham also score 75% of goals away from home in the second-half and concede 67% so a 0-0 scoreline at half-time with goals in the second period is a distinct possibility.

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