- Pedro Porro can be the difference maker for Spurs against Man City on Saturday
- Pep Guardiola’s City will look to end their four-game losing streak
- Will Ruben Amorim be Man United’s saviour? LISTEN NOW: It’s All Kicking Off! Available wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes every Monday and Thursday
Losing is an occupational hazard if you’re most clubs, but not Manchester City.
For them, it’s almost an annual event, so rare is it for them to lose one game of football, let alone four in a row.
At Arsenal, we went through long periods without losing. You play in a very proud manner, with that feeling of being unbeatable energising and enveloping everyone.
Yet I would be lying if I said we did not wonder what would happen if and when that bubble were to burst. Arsene Wenger even used to ask me how I thought the team might respond once we were beaten.
Pep Guardiola faced that very problem over the last month as City became the talk of the Premier League for all the wrong reasons.
Who knows, maybe the noise around Guardiola possibly leaving amid their 115 charges was unsettling, but all that uncertainty vanished overnight with his signing of a new two-year contract. Now what they need is to follow that up with a home win over Tottenham.
Pedro Porro’s relentless crossing ability from right back may prove to be a handful for Man City
Pep Guardiola will look to snap his side’s four game losing streak at home on Saturday evening
Looking at the brave way Ange Postecoglou’s team play, City will be asked questions on Saturday evening.
What Tottenham will offer is more balls into the box than anyone they have faced. Nobody in the Premier League has produced a higher number of crosses than Spurs’ 275 this season, with Pedro Porro responsible for 76 of those as the full back flies down the right wing to allow Brennan Johnson to move inside.
When you look back at the goals conceded by City this could pose a problem, as there are some serious issues which need solving.
Take Fulham’s second goal at the Etihad last month, for example. The visitors are moving the ball from side to side at the back, but then one punched pass takes them through two lines of City’s defensive shield and into a pocket of space behind their Rodri-less midfield. Fulham work it wide to Reiss Nelson on the right with zero pressure on them. The cross comes in from Nelson and City’s marking is non-existent.
John Stones will know he should have been tight to Rodrigo Muniz as Fulham’s striker is on his own with time to control the ball and finish.
City weathered that late storm to keep their 3-2 lead, but they have also conceded goals from crosses to Arsenal, Wolves and Bournemouth.
City have had disruption in their defence, with Guardiola fielding six different back fours in 11 Premier League games.
That said, equally concerning for Guardiola is how City have conceded in flurries in their last couple of defeats — two goals in five minutes to Brighton and three in 11 to Sporting
Lisbon — which perhaps suggests a lack of leadership and character.
Guardiola’s side may face on onslaught of crosses from Spurs, who lead the league in this stat
When you concede, you need to come together as a group, not allow your opponents to gain confidence and energy from grabbing that first goal.
It would be ridiculous for anyone to write off City.
They’re still in all the fights which they have won before, for the Premier League, for the Champions League and so on. This is fixable, of course it is.
Guardiola is the professor of football in today’s game. His back is against the wall as he feels others are celebrating their four-defeat slump. But you can bet he will come out swinging like the serial winner he is.
