This week, one of the biggest games in the history of English football will take place. Not Chelsea’s chance to break Manchester United’s Premier League stranglehold for the first time in four seasons, not United’s last-chance saloon meeting with Stoke, not even the titanic clash between footballing supergiants Wolves and Sunderland. On Wednesday night, Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City host Tottenham Hotspur in a game which is likely to decide the destination of the Premier League’s fourth place. This level of hype when attributed to a play-off for such a comparatively meagre prize may seem unwarranted, but the result of the game at the City of Manchester Stadium could well shape the course of the Premier League for years to come.
King and Modric will be key for Spurs
The prize, for Tottenham, is scintillating. A place at Europe’s top table is what they and their chairman Daniel Levy have longed for since the Champions League became no longer just the ultimate footballing prize in Europe, but the ultimate financial prize in world football. The sustained investment in their squad since the ENIC group took over in 2001 has come to in excess of £260million. Considering that their North London rivals Arsenal have spent a net total of £1.6m in that period, Spurs fans have every right to expect more than two 5th place finishes and a solitary League Cup in that time. If they can avoid defeat on Wednesday, they can guarantee that glittering prize with a victory against relegated Burnley at the weekend.
For Manchester City, on the other hand, fourth place offers an even more tempting reward. Champions League status will accelerate their inevitable ascension to the top table of English football. They already have the money – the carrot of Europe’s elite competition will only help them to tempt the world’s best players that a move to the Citizens is a viable option, and once that happens they may not look back. Because their financial clout more or less guarantees this will happen at some stage, the door is closing for Spurs, and may well close for good if they can’t keep it ajar on Wednesday.
On form, Spurs just about edge it. Having beaten both Arsenal and Chelsea and lost only to the current champions Manchester United in recent weeks, they are full of confidence and will hold fear for no-one. On the other hand, since the departure of Mark Hughes, Manchester City’s off-days have been few and far between. Crucially they have lost just two home games all season, and Tottenham’s record of six wins from seventeen away games may not inspire confidence ahead of this fixture – particularly when you consider that they have taken just one point on their travels against the current top 7.
Roberto Mancini must go for the win
There will be key players all over the pitch, but the two who will be the most integral will be Carlos Tevez and Ledley King. For Tevez, his 29-goal haul shows no sign of subsiding, and so impressive has his form been that you would be surprised if he failed to hit the thirty goal mark. On a quest to prevent him from achieving that milestone will be Ledley King, whose ability to play two games in a week will be tested right up until the final minute before kick-off. King’s importance to Tottenham’s success can not be overstated and his colossal performances in their biggest games this season have kept them in the hunt for fourth.
Home advantage probably just about gives City the edge, but it will be close. For neutrals it may be encouraging that a draw could be more or less useless to the home side, ensuring a perhaps uncharacteristically attacking outlook for a Mancini team as they go for the win. That result may decide the shape of the Premier League for the next five years or more.
