Tune in at 8:30 AM ET as Manchester City takes on Tottenham. Dan Frankel will be liveblogging for your enjoyment.
Thanks for joining me today, Manchester City take on Tottenham Hotspur at home at the Etihad Stadium. Please feel free to send in your comments and questions.
Man City remain the only unbeaten team in the EPL with with six wins and four draws. They currently sit 5 points behind local rivals and league leaders Man United with a game in hand of course. The squad played a midweek Champions League fixture against Ajax, fighting back from a 2-0 deficit to finish level at 2’s.
Tottenham enter the match today with17 points from their first 10 games (five wins, three draws and two losses). A win today would see them tied with Everton and West Brom for fourth in the EPL at 20 points. Like City, Tottenham also had a midweek game as they won 3-1 over Maribor in the Europa Cup on Thursday with striker Jermain Defoe scoring all three goals.
Manchester City Starting XI: Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Nastasic, Clichy, Yaya Toure, Barry, Kolarov, Silva, Tevez, Aguero
Substitutes: Pantilimon, Maicon, Dzeko, Sinclair, Javi Garcia, Toure, Razak
Tottenham Starting XI: Friedel, Walker, Caulker, Gallas, Vertonghen, Sandro, Huddlestone, Lennon, Dempsey, Bale, Adebayor
Substitutes: Lloris, Naughton, Defoe, Dawson, Sigurdsson, Livermore, Carroll.
City get a boost today from the return of David Silva, after missing a month with a hamstring injury.
Defoe scored a hat-trick midweek and is dropped from the starting lineup today. Bizzare. AVB clearly wants Adebayor to be the lone striker, play as a target man and hold up the ball.
AVB decides to continue to go with the inform American, Brad Friedel in goal over summer signing Lloris. Lloris has only played one Premier League game so far.
Tottenham are really struggling in the middle of the park right now. With Scott Parker and Moussa Dembele already ruled out to injury, Sandro passed a late fitness test to be included in the squad today. Something to keep an eye on…
Bale and Lennon should provide a dangerous wide counter attacking threat to Man City's narrow shape.
1 min: Tottenham with some good early possession, fast start. Adebayor links up well with Lennon down the right.
Adebayor sent to the sidelines to change the colour of his tape around his socks...
2 min: City with their first spell of possession, ends with a sloppy first touch from Yaya.
3 min: Barry tries to play it over the top of Tottenham's high line, and Aguero nearly gets there, but Friedel gets off his line to collect calmly.
4 min: Tevez and Aguero combining well at the top of the box, but Gallas is there to sniff it out and intercept.
5 min: Lennon finds himself with the ball in his own defending third, tries to take on Kolarov but he dribles it straight out for a City throw-in
6 min: Adebayor holding the ball up well for the Spurs, allowing their wingers to join the attack.
7 min: Clichy with a hard challenge on Lennon after he took his first touch right around him. Clichy dove in early, does not want to give the speedy Lennon any space on his first touch.
@dan - AVB decided to go with Adebayor presumably because of his superior hold up play against a City team that likes to keep the ball.
9 min: Silva tries to play a clever ball to Kolarov who made a a good diagonal run across the box, but the ball from Silva is just a little too hard and goes straight to Friedel. Good idea from City.
11 min: Barry gets the ball played to his feet from a cut back from Tevez down the right, Barry takes one touch and tries to play it through the middle of the box, better option there would have been to shoot. Was standing 25 yards from goal, straight ahead. They do get a corner off of the deflected pass. Corner from Kolarov comes to nothing ass Tottenham head it away.
13 min: Huddlestone with a reckless foul in a dangerous position for City. 35 yards out. The dangerous Kolarov standing over the ball. His free-kick is decent but he didn't quite get the contact he wanted and Friedel with a comfortable save.
15 min: Adebayor again holding up the play well for the Spurs, he has done well to relieve some pressure.
16 min: Bale gets his first chance to run at Zabaleta, who brings him down. Free-kick for Tottenham. huddlestone's free-kick is headed away behind the net by City for a corner. The first corner is deflected again behind the net by Barry for a second corner. Huddlestone takes the second corner and City head it away and counter quickly.
17 min: Sandro with the really hard tackle on Silva, but the referee judges him to have gotten the ball cleanly. Sandro doing well defensively so far, breaking up a few City attacks, taking away any space.
19 min: Vertonghen gets forward from left back and tries to curl in a cross but it is cleared for a throw. On the long throw it somehow bounces around the City box and nearly falls to Adebayor but Hart gets off his line just in time to clean up the mess.
@dylan - yes, he has done well so far. Has acted as a good target man for the Spurs attack.
Huddlestone with a free kick from the left touchline, curls in a great free-kick, and Caulker beats Nastasic to the ball and powers down a header off of Hart and into the net.
