Lawro predicts Spurs to lose at Man City

BBC football pundit Mark Lawrenson has predicted that Tottenham Hotspur will lose to Manchester City on Sunday.

Last time out Lawro had Spurs down to beat Wigan 2-0, when in reality we suffered a disappointing 1-0 defeat to Roberto Martinez’s side at the Lane.

He told BBC Sport online: “After Tuesday’s draw with Ajax, Manchester City are almost certainly out of the Champions League and, although nobody at the club would probably ever admit it, I don’t think they would mind finishing fourth in their group and going out of the Europa League too.

“Being knocked out of Europe would definitely do their Premier League title hopes some good, because they can concentrate on retaining their trophy.

“Questions are being asked about whether Roberto Mancini can deliver in the Champions League but, if he wins the title again, then it will be a case of ‘pressure, what pressure?’.

“And, for all of City’s struggles in Europe, they remain unbeaten in the Premier League.

“There are a few reasons why they are not playing as well as they did last season – for starters, after you win the league for the first time it is always very difficult to recapture that form.

“I also think one or two of their players are resting on their laurels a little bit, and defensively they are making mistakes in every game – Vincent Kompany does not look anything like the player he was last season.

“But the other factor is that David Silva is proving to be more of a miss at the moment than he would be normally.

“Silva is such a good player at spotting gaps in defences and probing away and they don’t seem to have anyone else who can do that – they try to get their full-backs forward well but there is not much creativity out wide either, and they look very narrow coming forward to me.

“But I still fancy them to beat most teams in the Premier League. They are definitely good enough to beat Tottenham because, with Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez up front, you would back them against the Spurs defence.

“Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas is still trying to work his team out and it looks like he is trying to shoe-horn Emmanuel Adebayor in at the moment.

“Jermain Defoe has started the season extremely well so the question for Villas-Boas is, does he shoehorn Adebayor in with Defoe up front or without him?

“This is going to be a frustrating season for Tottenham, and their fans will need to show some patience when they lose games.

“Prediction: 2-1.”

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