Can Tottenham end City’s run?

BIG CHALLENGE Defender Rose says Spurs’ recent success against Man City will give them confidence for today’s match

MANCHESTER: Premier League leaders Manchester City are on a ‘frightening’ run of form but Tottenham Hotspur are looking forward to the challenge of halting their record-breaking 15-game winning streak, Spurs defender Danny Rose has said.

City have opened up an 11-point lead, while Tottenham, in fourth, trail them by 18 points.

“They do look very frightening — scoring goals and they’ve kept a clean sheet against Swansea. We’ve done alright there in the past couple of seasons and that should give us some confidence at the weekend,” Rose said.

“We were the first ones to beat City last season and we disrupted Chelsea’s unbeaten run. It’s another challenge we all look forward to.”

Since Mauricio Pochettino took over as manager in 2014, Spurs have won only one of 17 away matches against Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.

“We haven’t done so well away from home against the top teams this season so we hope to go there with some confidence and keep pushing on after three wins that we’ve had over the last week.”

Some comfort can be taken from the fact that the one exception was a 2-1 success at the Etihad Stadium in February 2016, but the two teams were in different situations back then, with Tottenham battling with Leicester City for the Premier League title and Manchester City stumbling towards a fourth-place finish under Manuel Pellegrini.

In the 22 months since, City have evolved from also-rans into one of the most prolific, entertaining and consistent sides in the world, as potent away as they are at home. Guardiola’s team have won seven home league matches in succession and haven’t been beaten at the Etihad in the league since Chelsea claimed a 3-1 league win on Dec 3, 2016.

In eight home games in the league this season, they have scored 28 goals at a rate of 3.5 per game, which suggests Tottenham might struggle to keep a clean sheet and that they will need to score, potentially more than once, to get a result.