Premier League 
/ Lee Dixon / 21 January 2012 / Leave a Comment 
Jermain Defoe doing what Jermain Defoe does best
"Spurs have a good record against City though with Opta revealing the Lilywhites have suffered just five defeats in the last 29 league matches between the two sides."
This is a huge match in the title race whichever way you look at it. Spurs are more than capable of denying Manchester City a point and keeping the title race wide open, says Lee Dixon.
With half of the season gone not many would have expected this to have been a match between two title contenders. There will be those who think that Spurs won't be able to keep going like they have been (for whatever reason) but whilst they're still within touching distance of the pace-setters, we can't rule them out. And if Spurs can't quite keep up till the bitter end, at the very least they'll have a say in who does win it as a result of their matches against Manchester City and United.
Managers will tell you that it's 1-0 away wins that win you leagues, not 5-0 drubbings. What they mean is that securing three points when you're not playing that well is the quality of champions. City's win at Wigan was a case in point. They created a fair few chances but there wasn't a huge amount of fluency in their passing and in the end it was a couple of really good saves from Joe Hart that secured the points. That and the fact that his players did a good job of defending their lead in a pragmatic way rather than going in search of more goals. That gameplan doesn't always work of course but on this occasion it did.
Spurs' chances of contending for the title were dealt a huge blow last Saturday with a disappointing home draw against Wolves, but those results are going to happen from time to time when you're not scoring enough goals. In recent matches they scored just one, or occasionally two, and defended very well. But if you go a goal behind you need to be able to go up a couple of gears if you want to win the league title. How many times have we seen Manchester United over the years stage comebacks after going behind?
Neither side is necessarily at their best just now though it's perfectly understandable that City are slight odds-on to win this game. Spurs have a good record against City though with Opta revealing the Lilywhites have suffered just five defeats in the last 29 league matches between the two sides. They've also lost just one of their last nine away matches - and that in controversial fashion at Stoke - and will be desperate to avenge that thrashing at the Lane earlier on in the season. My money is on the draw at [3.85].
A tough market to call. Spurs have kept just the one clean sheet in their last eight games away from home (Opta) so I don't think there's much chance of another against the league leaders. But it's not inconceivable that they'll concede just the one, whereas I've already touched on the fact they're not scoring too many themselves. The best way to play this is to back unders at [2.16] at the off and lay off your bet if there aren't any goals in the first 20 minutes. There may end up being three goals in the match but it may take a while for them to come.
Emmanuel Adebayor is unavailable for this match because of the terms of his loan to Spurs. That may actually not be a bad thing for Harry Redknapp. Firstly because he hasn't been in great form recently and secondly because he's a temperamental character who has been known to get a bit over-excited in matches against teams he used to play for. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/8252803.stm OK, admittedly he's still a City player, but you know what I mean. Either way, it makes Redknapp's life pretty simple when it comes to picking his striker and Jermain Defoe is almost certain to get a game at last.
There's been speculation Defoe may want to move on given that at this stage of his career he wants to be starting every week, especially with a major championship coming up in the summer. It may be just that - speculation - but Defoe obviously feels he should be playing more. This is a good chance to prove he deserves more game time for the rest of the season and there's no reason why Defoe can't go out and do what he does best. Back him to find the net at any time.
1 pt Back the draw @ [3.85]
1 pt Back-to-lay under 2.5 goals @ [2.16]
Back Jermain Defoe to score at anytime @ [4.5]
Michael Cox says:
Harry Redknapp isn't regarded as the league's most astute tactician, but he'll be well aware that Manchester City have often struggled this season against sides that defend deep before playing on the break - Napoli were a good example, as more recently, were Sunderland.
With that in mind, and without Emmanuel Adebayor, I expect Jermain Defoe to start upfront because of his pace. But I think he might be closely supported by Gareth Bale, who is increasingly playing through the middle and is therefore more of a goalscoring threat himself. Few players are as devastating on the break, so I'm surprised to see Bale at [15.0] to open the scoring.
Back Gareth Bale to be first goalscorer @ [15.0]
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