Tottenham Hotspur vs. Manchester City - 5 players to watch out for | Premier League 2020-21
This weekend marks the return of the Premier League, and in one of the biggest clashes of 2020-21 thus far, Tottenham Hotspur play host to Manchester City.
Tottenham are flying high at the minute, sitting in second place in the Premier League table. City have not started quite so strongly, but they’re on an unbeaten run of five matches and also have a game in hand on their rivals.
With the match also reigniting the long-simmering rivalry between Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho and City boss Pep Guardiola, this is a clash of the biggest magnitude.
With that considered, here are five players to keep an eye on when Tottenham take on Manchester City.
#1 Ferran Torres (Manchester City)
Manchester City’s results this season have been relatively strong, but Pep Guardiola’s men have not looked quite as menacing as they’ve done in their previous campaigns. Part of this has to do with the fact that they’re simply not scoring quite so many goals right now.
City have scored just 10 goals in their opening seven games of the 2020-21 season. That’s nine less than Tottenham have scored thus far, and it’s also 17 less than City managed in the first seven matches of the 2019-20 campaign.
Faced with a defense that has also only let in one goal in their last three matches, City will need to find their goalscoring boots to win this weekend. And one man that could help them in that area is Ferran Torres.
Signed by City in the summer for just over £20m, the Spanish international has yet to find the net in the Premier League. But he has been effective in the Champions League, scoring in all three of City’s matches in Europe thus far.
And more to the point, he scored a hat-trick for Spain last week in their 6-0 destruction of Germany.
With City shorn of the influential Raheem Sterling for Saturday’s game, and with Sergio Aguero also out, Torres may well be the man that Pep Guardiola turns to for his side’s goals. And if he can manage to cut through Tottenham’s defense as he did against Germany, then he could win the game for his team.
#2 Son Heung-min (Tottenham)
The winner of the Premier League’s Player of the Month award for October, Son Heung-min has been on fire for Tottenham in the opening games of 2020-21. While Harry Kane has also taken plenty of the plaudits, his partner in crime has been arguably even more effective.
Son has already plundered eight goals in his first eight games this season, and he’s registered two assists as well. Right now, it seems that whenever the South Korean gets a sight of goal, he’s probably going to score.
That should worry Pep Guardiola greatly – particularly as Son is likely to be up against Kyle Walker at the weekend. The England international has not been in the best form recently – being derided by pundit Roy Keane for his performance against Liverpool. And in Son, he’ll be faced with a rare opponent who can match him for pace.
Son also loves to play against Manchester City. The Korean international scored the key goals for Tottenham in their Champions League triumph over City in 2019 – the winner in the first leg and a brace in the second. Again, Son added Tottenham’s second goal in their 2-0 win over Guardiola’s men in February.
If City are to win this game, then they must find a way to stop Son from getting chances in front of goal – otherwise, the spoils will go to Tottenham.