It may be Valentine’s Day, but there will be no love lost between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. They’ll be too busy trying to one-up each other in a heated match in the middle of the English Premier League title race to care about a holiday, especially with just one point separating the two teams coming into the weekend.
Manchester City vs. Tottenham 2016: Time, TV schedule and how to watch online
Manchester City’s form has been highly volatile of late, and on Sunday they play host to a red-hot Tottenham side that has won four straight matches.
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With Spurs riding a four-match winning streak coming into this match, their confidence has to be sky-high, especially with several key players playing extremely well. When they look across the pitch and see a team in Manchester -- who are badly battered by injury and whose form can best be described as “mercurial” of late -- they have to feel very good about their chances of running that streak out to five matches and potentially even pulling closer to Leicester City atop the table. That confidence would only be further buoyed by memories of dominating City 4-1 at White Hart Lane in September to hand Manchester their second league loss of the season.
Manchester City are still a team that need to be taken very seriously, though, even with so much of their talent on the shelf with injuries. There’s also an interesting bit of trivia with that mercurial form -- since late November, they have won every other EPL match they’ve played, and dropped points between each win. If that pattern holds true, they’ll win this match.
Key player -- Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)
Kane has been on fire for Tottenham lately, scoring in four of his last six league matches and running defenses ragged in the other two. With Manchester’s back line walking wounded and captain Vincent Kompany not a lock to play -- and not near 100 percent effectiveness if he does take the field -- Kane’s mouth has to be watering at the prospect of this game. He could have an absolute field day out there at the Etihad Stadium, and if he can score an early goal it’s only going to help lift Spurs’ chances of winning dramatically.
Key matchup -- Yaya Toure (Manchester City) vs. Dele Alli (Tottenham Hotspur)
Alli has been in incredible form for Spurs over the last few months, with seven goals, five assists, and hours’ worth of play far beyond his tender 19 years of age. On Sunday, though, he’s going to face off with a player unlike any he’s faced in Toure, and this will be a stern test for Alli’s relative inexperience. Toure hasn’t always been at his dominating best this season, but if he has a good day, his arsenal has all the tools he needs and then some to give Alli some very painful lessons in playing in the EPL.
Manchester City injuries and suspensions
Out: Jesus Navas, Kevin De Bruyne, Samir Nasri, Wilfried Bony, Eliaquim Mangala, Fabian Delph, Bacary Sagna In doubt: David Silva, Vincent Kompany
Tottenham Hotspur injuries and suspensions
Out: Jan Vertonghen, Clinton N’Jie
Match Date/Time: Sunday, 11:15 a.m. ET, 4:15 p.m. local
Venue: Etihad Stadium, Manchester, England
TV: NBCSN (U.S. - English), NBC Universo (U.S. - Spanish), Sportsnet World (Canada), Sky Sports 1/HD (U.K.)
Online: NBC Sports Live Extra (U.S.), Sportsnet World Now (Canada), Sky Go (U.K.)
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