BOF's "While We're Waiting For The Official Man City Thread" thread

[BoringOldFan]

Off we go again on another rollercoaster ride in the league as we take on Citeh. A good chance to work the midweek disappointment out of our system...

Team News

Us: Gareth Bale and Assou-Ekotto are fit to play again! No, just kidding they're both still fucked. Let's hope we returned from Eindhoven with nothing but injured pride. I'd expect Ledders to have his normal game off with Daws making a return. It will be interesting to see if Ramos uses the remaining 10 league games as a chance to start other squad players.

Them: physioroom is reporting only Onuoha (hamstringping) and Richards (kneecrook) as out, but the papers have others like Richard Dunne as doubtful. Martin Petrov is suspended.

Form/Runes

We go into the Citeh game on a run of WLWDDW with only the away loss at Brum spoiling the sequence. 11 points from a possible 18 is near-CL form but we've failed to maintain it for long enough to mount a serious challenge this season. Away from home we're LWDLLL going back to the loss at Cashburden Grave last December.

Citeh can 'boast' a form record of LDLWLD which hardly matches their sparkling form earlier in the season. At home it looks like DLLDWD which is pretty shocking when you think they won their first nine home games. But our 2-0 win there in the Carling Cup quarter final proved to be the turning point. Let's hope we can do it again.

Our record at Maine Road/Eastlands in the league is 14 wins, 30 losses and 14 draws. In the Premier League only it's quite astonishing. Just look at these stats: SEVEN wins for us, two draws and only two defeats! In fact Citeh have only beaten us twice in 21 Premier League gamers! COYS!

Adjudication

Run for the hills! It's Mark Clattenburg! Yes, the Clangermeister takes charge as he did for our 1-3 home loss to the Goons, the 2-2 FA Cup draw with Reading and the 1-1 draw with Man U. So no wins with him so far this season. In 28 games he's waved 98 yellow and 9 red cards, so expect 3.5 bookings on Sunday.

Fergie recently raged against 'away refs' at Old Trafford spluttering "We never get Clattenburg at home". We wish. Who failed to see Pedro Mendes' goal for us at OT in 2004 Fergie? Mickey Mouse? Actually - yes. For the record, it was also Clattenburg in charge when Man U beat us 0-4 at WHL last season.

Predictions

Lawro: I think Tottenham will have had a lot taken out of them by the two hours or so they played in Eindhoven in midweek, and this is far from an easy trip. Meanwhile, although Man City are stuttering to a certain extent their home form still remains fairly good, so I'll go for a narrow home win. Verdict: 1-0

This week's guest predictor is Basil Fawlty: Football you say? Torquay playing? So I can expect to see Pele and Maradona striding majestically across the pitch? Excellent. Sybil answer that phone! Never mind I'll do it myself. Just don't mention the Carling Cup. I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it. Manuel - come here so I can hit you. 3-1 Spurs.

Stats & Facts

TOTTENHAM has conceded more goals from corners (10) and headers (13) than any other Prem team.

TOTTENHAM has scored a goal in the 90th minute in 4 of their last 6 games.

TOTTENHAM has the fourth worst away defence (22 goals conceded) but the top home attack (37 goals scored) in the Premier League.

With 53 scored and 45 conceded TOTTENHAM is likely to be the first club to see 100 league goals in their games this season.

MAN CITY has score more than two goals in a league game only ONCE this season. Pansies. And they haven't scored in over FIVE HOURS.

DESPITE trawling their own site, Sky Sports, BBC and The Guardian, I can find NO OTHER INTERESTING STATS about MANCHESTER CITY.

DIDIER ZOKORA will make his 50th league appearance - and still remains one goal short of his first goal for Tottenham (if you don't count his penalty on Wednesday).

Come On You Spurs!

 

[Dougal]

And how about Robbo keeping 2 clean sheets in a row? (Again discounting penalties)

 

[mil1lion]

My prediction is 0-2 because we have a good record against City. I expect its Berbatov's time to be rested. He has played 3 games in a week including the full 2 hour shift on wednesday. So that leaves Bent and Keane up front. The question will be whether Malbranque plays aswell and i suggest he proves the doubters wrong with a start and a typical workmanlike performance. I predict he will score a goal to add to his cup goal at the same destination in the Carling Cup. Then theres Chimbonda. Is he in the right frame of mind to play on sunday? I'm guessing Hutton will start with O'Hara at left back. King will no doubt be rested in order for Dawson to show how he can handle the mid-table teams like he's a world class centre back. Then maybe Jenas will rest with his ankle trouble so Lennon in for him as we return to our normal 4-4-2 which i'm sure will change as the game goes on. We know how Ramos likes to keep the opponents guessing (and us fans aswell for that matter.) Lets hope Robbo can replicate his last display at the City of Manchester Stadium. COYS

 

[milkman]

1-0 to the yids

 

[yid-down-under]

And how about Robbo keeping 2 clean sheets in a row? (Again discounting penalties)

4-0 against spammers and 0-1 against the dutch. Thats two in a row......

 

[dontcallme]

I predicted at the beginning of the season City would be much improved but lack of squad depth would slow them down at the end of the season. For once it looks like i was right. Petrov and Richards are major players for them and Ramos will be demandiing a strong end to the season from our players so I feel we have a good chance in this match despite our poor away record.

Some might say our season is over as we are out the Uefa Cup and little chance of achieving much in the league. I disagree, I expect Ramos to be completely ruthless in the transfer market both with selling players and bringing new ones in. Our whole squad has the rest of the season to prove their worth and if we have a very strong end to the season then we have a better chance of attracting higher quality players so there is much to play for.

 

[JamesTheYiddo]

Come On You Spurs