Man City vs Spurs | Rob's analysis, Ben's one to watch...

Club commentator Rob Daly and Ben Haines, presenter of our preview show Inside Spurs and matchday shows The Warm Up and Review Show, give their views on our huge Premier League clash at Manchester City on Sunday (4.30pm UK).

Talking tactics with Rob

"Manchester City are formidable at home - they've won 24 of their 25 games at the Etihad this calendar year. The only game they've failed to win in 2023 is last weekend's draw against Liverpool. They've also got players coming back to beef up the midfield, Mateo Kovacic is available, Matheus Nunes is close, John Stones, who can play that defender/midfielder role, was on the bench in midweek and should be okay after a muscle problem. So, it's really only Kevin de Bruyne of their nailed-on starters not around at the moment. I did feel, having seen their midweek Champions League match against RB Leipzig, that there was a vulnerability about them on the counter-attack. Lois Openda scored a couple of goals where he managed to isolate a central defender on the half way line, bump them and race through to score. You could see Heung-Min Son doing something similar, but will City be as cavalier against Spurs at the weekend? Admittedly, Spurs don't play on the counter as much these days, thinking about teams that have done well against City in recent years, like Conte and Mourinho's teams, but this team can move the ball up the pitch extremely quickly, so I can still see Ange's team hurting City like that. In terms of team selection, it was absolutely brutal news on Rodrigo Bentancur this week, but at least Yves Bissouma is back from suspension to play in exactly the same position Bentancur played against Villa. Personally, I don't see too many tweaks to that team. Ange hasn't a great deal of options with the injuries at the moment, but we all know that Spurs will go there, play their way and try to create chances."

Ben's players to watch

"I thought we did enough to win the game against Villa twice over last week, thought we were brilliant, and it was a huge moment to lose Rodrigo Bentancur to injury, he looked so elegant on the ball, creatively magnificent and his control of the game, to have thought he was out that long... such a shame he'll now miss another couple of months. From a Spurs point of view, my one to watch at City is Gio Lo Celso. I thought he played so well against Villa, drove us forward, combative, winning possession. It will be interesting to see, with Yves Bissouma back, but Pape Matar Sarr still out, whether it's Gio and Biss, plus Dejan Kulusevski or if Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg maybe comes back in. Hopefully Gio is in there and has another telling impact on the game. For City, where do you start? You could pick 10, 15 players. I'll tell you who I'm going to go with, and I'm not even sure if he'll start, but I'll go for Kyle Walker. I feel like Heung-Min Son always has a real tear-up against Kyle whenever they play against each other. Walker is incredibly quick, a phenomenal player, one of the best right-back/centre-backs the Premier League has seen - and he made his name with us. I just feel Sonny and that battle is crucial to how this game plays out. If Walker manages to shut out Sonny, or Brennan Johnson, or whoever is in that inside pocket down our left, then that will have a huge impact on the result, the same if we get the better of him. So, Walker for me, but it could be Jeremy Doku, Phil Foden, Rodrigo, and you can't forget Erling Haaland, it just goes on and on..."