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This preview was written by Brian Judson

Full Record of Spurs -v- Manchester City

Premier       Pl   W  D  L  For-Ag  Pts
Home           4   4  0  0   7 - 2  12
Away           4   2  1  1   6 - 6   7
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Total (Prem)   8   6  1  1  13 - 8  19
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Football Lge
Home (Div 1)  46  21 13 12  84 -59  58
Away (Div 1)  46   7 11 28  39 -90  24
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Total (Div 1) 92  28 24 40 123 -149 82
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Football Lge
Home (Div 2)   2   0  1  1   2 - 3   1
Away (Div 2)   2   0  0  2   0 - 3   0
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Total (Div 2)  4   0  1  3   2 - 6   1
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Total (Prem)   8   6  1  1  13 - 8  19
Total (Div 1) 92  28 24 40 123 -149 82
Total (Div 2)  4   0  1  3   2 - 6   1
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Grand Total  104  34 26 44 138 -163 102
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Whenever I consider this fixture, the memory I conjure up most of all is standing on the Shelf on the afternoon of February 8th 1958 when 37,539 spectators stood in the rain in silence in memory of the Busby Babes who had died at Munich two days before. Even now, some 42 years after the event, it is still clear in my mind. Spurs beat Manchester City 5-1 that afternoon, with Bobby Smith notching a hat-trick and Johnny Brooks and George Robb adding one apiece.

A more recent memory, of course, is the Cup tie at Maine Road on 7th March 1993 when Nayim of blessed memory hit a hat-trick and Sedgley added the other. The game was interrupted as the Maine Road idiots tried to get the game abandoned and the police horses had to be called to get them back on to the terraces. Nayim was brilliant that afternoon but his finest hour was still to come in Paris a couple of years later!

My third memory of Manchester City has nothing to do with Spurs unless you accept the tenuous connection of David Pleat capering over the Maine Road pitch after Luton had beaten Manchester City at the end of season 1982-83 to send the Mancunians down.

Manchester City were once the better known of the two Mancunian teams as Manchester United languished for a long time at the wrong end of Division 2 and came perilously close to relegation to the old Third Division (North) at one point. But since the end of WW2, Manchester City have been the poorer relations of the two and have sampled the equivalent of Third Division football when they spent a single season in the Second Division a couple of years ago. That Manchester City ever fell that low has to be blamed on the Peter Swales administration as it chopped and changed managers with alarming regularity. They had no less than SIX managers in the 1980s, few of whom stayed very long. Some of the personnel who passed through the team in that period were very expensive flops, for example one Steve Daley.

But it is clear that Manchester City are on the way back, despite the fact they have had one or two heavy defeats in the opening weeks of the season. I was personally surprised when they signed George Weah and Paulo Wanchope. Weah is clearly long past his best : why else did AC Milan release him if he wasn't? And Wanchope, whilst scoring some spectacular goals, is not noted for consistency.

Over the years, as can be seen above, Spurs have enjoyed better fortunes against Manchester City at Tottenham than they have at Maine Road. But with Spurs' injury list starting to creep up again and a likely weak back four to be built around Vega, it is clear that Spurs will need to be sharp up front if they are to score more goals than Manchester City.

Our last home League game against Manchester City was at the start of the 1995-96 season. This is how Bruce Lewis saw the two goals at that match :

"Ten minutes before half time a long searching pass found Ronnie Rosenthal hovering just outside the penalty area, towards the corner flag, on the left side of the City penalty area. He tried to twist past the City defender that was covering him, and almost seemed to get tackled, but he did really well in getting the ball back to substitute Kevin Scott who had come up to support him a few yards back. By this time Tottenham players were arriving in the penalty area, with not too many City defenders back to cover them. Scott played a perfect cross over to the far side of the area where Teddy Sheringham was waiting completely unmarked. He received the cross perfectly by heading the ball past City's new German goal-keeper Eike Immel. It was a classic text book placed header, and Teddy knew it. Tottenham's number one striker had opened his latest account and the two thousand Spurs supporters who had made the trip up from London gratefully appreciated his fine effort.

"We hoped for more of the same in the second half, but ten minutes in Uwe Rosler scored to level it for City. A cross came in, over to the far post, and although a Spurs defender was goal-side of Rosler, the German was able to head in over Walker, who came off his line and got stuck in no-man's land. From where he was the Spurs 'keeper had no chance of stopping Rosler's header."

The return game was played in the following January when Spurs scored the only goal of the match in the second half. Here is my description of that goal :

"There seemed to be no danger when Sol Campbell drifted out to the left wing with the ball. Sheringham, Armstrong, Caskey, Dozzell and Rosenthal were all closely marked in City's packed penalty area. Campbell's cross soared across the City goal as Immel, sensing the threat, back-pedalled across his goalmouth. The ball dropped towards the far post but there still seemed to be no danger as the ball looked set to drop out of play. Then, instinctively, Armstrong threw himself forward and managed to head the ball beyond the flailing arms of the German goalkeeper to notch his 11th goal of the season."

And tomorrow? Providing we can ride out the initial storm and then take the game to City, I can't see any reason why we should not win. I was not very impressed with their performance against Middlesbrough when I watched them on Sky on Sunday. They'll probably stay up but I cannot see them setting the Premier League on fire. I think we will probably win by a late goal.

Cheers, Brian

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