Can we make it three in a row?

Believe it or not, fellow Blues, but we’ve actually won our last two league visits to the once-bogey ground that is the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

🤫

Whisper it very quietly so as to not wake the Gods of Fate that I'm about to tempt, but facing a side in very poor domestic form, a team who have a terrible home record, generally speaking, and a manager who is apparently under threat of losing his job; surely this is a good time to visit our former house of horrors.

v Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game which, for me blog wise, was our 2-0 home win over Wolves: 7/11).

A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 (occasional 3-6-1):

____________________Haaland____________________

 

 

Samenyo_________________________________Cherki

 

___________Silva(C)_______________Foden__________

 

_____________________Rodri(VC)___________________

O’Reilly___________________________________Nunes

___________Guehi_______________Khusanov________

 

 

__________________Donnarumma__________________

Subs: Trafford, Ait-Nouri, Lewis, Ake, Alleyne, Gonzalez, Mukasa, Reijnders and Marmoush.

Gigi has the gloves.

A back-4, occasional 3, of Nico-O-, Marc, Abdukodir and Matheus.

Rodders returns in the heart of our midfield after midweek European suspension.

Ahead of our Vice Captain I see Antoine, Bernardo, Phil and Rayan-C-, with Erling up front.

James is reserve keeper; Rayan-A-, Rico, Nathan and Max make up four defenders on the bench. Nico-G-, Divine and Tijjani provide midfield cover from the side, while Omar gives us both striker and wide options in reserve.

Notable absences:

-       Marcus Bettinelli – Not selected.

-       Stefan Ortega – Not selected.

-       John Stones – A minor thigh issue then turned into something that was apparently going to take X-amount of months to resolve. However, since that assessment, Pep said on 16^th January that he was hoping to have the England international back soon. Whether that was pure hope or a signal that John was making good progress, I just don’t know, but we’ve heard nothing since.

-       Josko Gvardiol – Out with a fractured tibia, for which he has had surgery. On 23^rd January, we were informed that it will be at least 2 more months before the Croatian international might be ready to return, which takes him up to the end of March.

-       Ruben Dias – Following a hamstring injury, we were informed on 30^th January that the 28-year-old will be back in training on Monday 2^nd February.

-       Kalvin Phillips – Not selected.

-       Mateo Kovacic – There’s been no update on Mateo’s condition for a good while now but it was expected that the Croatian international midfielder would be back sometime in the month of February.

-       Jeremy Doku – Out with another unspecified leg injury. On 30^th January we were told that the Belgian international will be out for around 2 weeks.

-       Savinho – Out with an unspecified leg injury. It was said on 7^th January that it will be 6 to 8-weeks before we could see the Brazilian international winger back in contention to be part of a matchday squad. On 23^rd January, we were given an update and that was that the young Brazilian had started back with some light training / running the day before.

Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?

Yeah…but I say that hoping for a much improved performance from both Rodri and Phil Foden.

Result?

We face a side who are indeed in rotten domestic form but who are, weirdly, doing really well in the Champions League.

Out of both domestic cups - the F.A. Cup in their first round - and 14^th in the table; sitting just 8 points above the relegation zone has triggered huge questions of their manager who only joined them in the summer of 2025.

However, what might save his Danish bacon, although it didn’t protect his predecessor, is a very strong showing in Europe, as they’ve just qualified for the ‘Round of 16’ in a very healthy position of 4^th from a league of 36.

🤪 I can’t explain that very mixed picture but I do invite answers from anyone in a better position than I. 🤷‍♂️

What won’t be helping is an injury list that’s even worse than ours. Yes…even worse! They had 12 recorded injuries ahead of their Wednesday night fixture. One or two of those could be in contention for a return as they make plans to face us this afternoon (4:30pm KO GMT).

As for us, it was a stronger showing from our lads in midweek, with a formation tweak largely forced by the absence of the suspended [from Champions League] Rodri. It was far from perfect and, as we’ve seen all too often, one half performance was better than the other; with us being wasteful and just not killing the opposition off with an extra goal once again. 😠

That display followed an okay one against Wolves last Saturday and we are now two wins from two with two clean sheets in that mini “run”. Fingers crossed that this continues and turns into another decent unbeaten period.

This sure does go in our favour but I remain a little sceptical about Spurs’ poor domestic form and bobbins home record. Afterall, it’s still “them”, it’s still the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and we are still a side that is a shadow of its former self for one reason or another.

I want to say a City win and I SHOULD be saying a City win - we’re better than they are. And I do remind myself that we have those two, back-to-back league wins at their place in the last two seasons.

After pausing and reflecting for a couple of days and now into this weekend…

For me it boils down to this and, for once, I’m forgetting any so-called bogey ground theory. I look at that [predicted] starting 11 of ours and, for the most part, I see a strong side; one that is capable of growing even stronger together over time.

I then match it against a team who are all over the place, domestically; one that has multiple injuries and an under pressure manager trying to put out his best 11 in front of a twitchy and demanding crowd.

I’m havin’ this down as a City win.

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:

Prediction: Draw

Result: Won

(Pre-match blog posting from that game)

Expected weather conditions during the game: Mixed but mostly damp. A little sunshine and a lot of showers with a gentle, southerly breeze. Not too cold for 1^st February at around 8C but in the soggy conditions, I can’t imagine it feeling all that pleasant. 🧥☂️🌦️🍵🥧🍺⚽

Solidarity