Tottenham could be ’embarrassed’ in their Premier League opener against Manchester City, according to former England defender Danny Mills.
Premier League champions Man City travel to north London on Sunday to face Nuno Espirito Santo’s Spurs.
While City stormed to their third title in four years last season, Tottenham only finished seventh, 24 points behind Pep Guardiola’s side.
‘It’s Nuno Espirito Santo’s first game in charge of Tottenham and he couldn’t have asked for a tougher opponent on paper as his side take on the champions of the Premier League in Manchester City,’ Mills told Ladbrokes.
‘They need to raise their game; they’ll be doing everything in their power to not get embarrassed by this City team.
‘I doubt Harry Kane will feature, but Nuno will have a plan in place regardless. He’ll be hoping that City aren’t quite ready because of players coming back from international duty.
‘Man City are rightly the overwhelming favourites in this, but they’ve just lost to Leicester in the Community Shield. There’s every chance that result will be a kick up the backside for them.
‘I’d expect Man City to dominate possession – even against Tottenham they’ll have 65-70% of the ball. It’s just a case of them being sharp enough to make a real impact. I fancy City to win the game.
‘If they’ve had long enough to get their new plan in place, it could be three or four goals they win by on Sunday. They could easily score that many.’
Liverpool legend Mark Lawrenson also expects Manchester City to prove too strong for Spurs, telling BBC Sport: ‘We can’t talk about this fixture without mentioning Tottenham striker Kane.
‘I don’t see Kane being able to feature in this game because he has not been training with his team-mates all week, but the bigger issue is that no-one knows which of these teams he will be playing for in September. Watch this space.
‘As for the game, Manchester City are without the injured Foden but they are not exactly short of creative attacking players, are they?
‘This is a new start for Spurs under Nuno and they have a couple of new players too, but I don’t see them stopping City from taking the three points.’
For more stories like this, check our sport page
Follow Metro Sport across our social channels, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
0 Commentaires