Premier League preview: Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur
So it’s come to this then.
With all three relegation places filled, and Carlo Ancelotti and Chelsea having one hand and four fingers on the Premier League trophy, the only thing that’s realistically left to sort out in the top flight this season is the identity of the team who finishes in that ever-important fourth place. The Sky Sports-sponsored “race for fourth.”
Aston Villa’s Champions League challenge has fallen away, Liverpool’s shambles of a season ensured that theirs was never convincing, and so it’s Manchester City and Spurs who are left standing in the final week of the campaign. They meet tonight at Eastlands and it’s live on the telly. Convenient, no?
It’s not strictly a Champions League play-off to decide who reaches the Champions League play-offs, but with both sides facing trips to bottom-four opposition on the final day of the season – City head south to West Ham, while Spurs stay up north to play Burnley – then it virtually is. A season of hype and hyperbole could come down to these 90 minutes, with the pressure firmly on City.
Roberto Mancini’s men have to win tonight. A draw would leave Spurs as firm favourites to finish in the top four, with a win for the visitors confirming it there and then and still leaving them with a chance to overhaul Arsenal in third, and how they’d love that.
But City’s gigantic outlay has all been about tonight, this moment.
Champions League football – or at least, the chance to play it; remember that the team who finishes fourth will still have to face a potentially difficult play-off at the start of next season – is what operation “Middle Eastlands” has all been about.
If City were to get it, then their chances of luring the top stars to Manchester – and keeping their current ones – in the close season will surely increase, and with Spurs and Aston Villa possibly overachieving in their efforts this campaign and, more pertinently, the most menacing of dark clouds placed over Liverpool’s immediate future, then it could be the start of a new force to seriously test the top three.
Spurs stand in their way though. Written off by many just a few weeks ago, victories over Arsenal and Chelsea underlined a growing quality and maturity within Harry Redknapp’s squad, and participation in European football’s top-tier competition would be a thoroughly deserved reward for an excellent season.
The likes of Gareth Bale, Michael Dawson and Luka Modric may have been considered unsung heroes in the past, but their displays in helping Tottenham to within touching distance of the Champions League have been rightly lauded.
Ironically, in a campaign that has seen many players from both sides take the plaudits and the headlines, it appears as though two lesser lights could have the biggest say tonight.
City’s “emergency” goalkeeper Marton Fulop looked shaky in the 3-1 win over Aston Villa at the weekend – his debut – while Spurs’ young reserve Ben Alnwick could be forced into action should regular stopper Heurelho Gomes miss out through injury.
The duo could have huge pressures on their shoulders, but it is nothing compared to the pressure that Mancini is under.
City’s owners want success yesterday, and they’ll see tonight as the first step towards that. Spurs are stubborn though, and won’t go down without a fight.
It might be the only question of the season left to answer, but it’s undoubtedly a difficult one.
Prediction: Manchester City 1 Tottenham Hotspur 1
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