PREMIER LEAGUE:What is bad for Manchester United is bad for Manchester City, reckon Tottenham Hotspur, who believe they can beat Roberto Mancini's team at the Etihad Stadium tomorrow by using the same approach that brought them victory at Old Trafford earlier this season.
The 3-2 triumph over United was the highlight of an impressive Spurs road show in a Premier League campaign that has so far yielded three victories from four away matches.
They have scored nine goals from those four games, more than they have mustered in six home matches, leading to the conviction that Andre Villas-Boas’s side are currently better suited to playing away.
Arsenal are the only Premier League visitors to have taken a point from City at the Etihad this season but Swansea and Southampton went close while the club’s Champions League travails, deepened by this week’s home draw with Ajax, fuel Spurs’ belief that attacking their hosts could pay dividends. “City is a little bit struggling and I think we can get a good result there,” said the Spurs centre-back Jan Vertonghen, adding that the speed of players such as Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon helps unhinge defences and exploit the space that home teams tend to leave, as opposed to visitors to White Hart Lane who are more inclined to sit deep and frustrate Tottenham. “We are confident that against the best teams in the league we can do well,” added Vertonghen. “Maybe it is because we have a lot of pace and we can hurt them in transition . . . I think we played our best games in the away games so that gives us confidence.”
Villas-Boas warned that little can be read into City’s current form but promised that his team will play with audacity.
“A team with such talent and ability [as City] are always in a position to bounce back. But in these games we have nothing to lose. We are on an extremely good form away from home. We have to approach the game in the right manner.”
Guardian Service
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