City visiting Spurs is one of the blues most unpredictable matches in the Premier League calendar. Most of the time it’s win or lose, we’ve won some, we’ve lost some but we don’t get many draw at Spurs.
In fact, from 23 Premier League games played at Spurs, only three have ended in a draw, the most recent being a goalless affair in August 2010. Prior to that, there was a 1-1 draw in April 2004 and another goalless stalemate in September 2000. 13 of those Premier League games have ended in defeat, which also incorporated City’s longest losing streak of six matches between March 2005 and December 2009. In all but one of those games, the blues were beaten 2-1, with a 3-0 beating coming in the final match of that dismal run. And if you count the two draws either side of the run, City’s winless run stretched to eight matches at White Hart Lane.
That’s not City’s longest winless run by any stretch. That honour came between December 1912 and March 1935, when the blues failed to win any of the fourteen matches played at Spurs, losing ten of them. And it was only a 2-0 win in April 1912 that stopped that run being extended. But enough about our bad runs at Spurs, let’s take a look at some winning streaks.
Okay, so the winning streak extends to just three matches. The blues won 3-2 at The Lane in February 1973, and was followed up in December of the same year with a 2-0 win. In August 1974, City recorded a 2-1 win. However, the winning run was also part of City’s best unbeaten run at Spurs, which stretched over seven matches, with one draw at the start of the run and two to end it.
Since their first meeting in December 1910, City have won a total of just 19 from the 74 league and cup matches played at Spurs, losing 37 and drawing 18. City’s heaviest defeat at Spurs has been 5-1, achieved on two occasions – April 1934 and February 1958. By coincidence, City’s biggest wins have also been 5-1, achieved in August 2011 and January 2014. Not that it’s relevant, but on each occasion Spurs beat City 5-1, the Londoner’s finished 3rd in the league with City 5th. On each occasion the blues have won 5-1, they have gone on to win the title. Sadly, Spurs finishing 4th and sixth in those two seasons renders this fact irrelevant!
Without doubt, one of City greatest moments at White Hart Lane came in February 2004 when Kevin Keegan’s struggling, 10 man City came back from 3-0 down to win 4-3 in an FA Cup tie, hailed as one of the greatest comeback’s in FA Cup history. It was the first time City had scored more than three goals at Spurs, however they had scored three on six occasions prior to that match. One of those games included the highest score draw between the two sides 3-3 in September 1952.
Last season, City won 3-1 at Wembley, in a win that all but sealed the title. Again by strange coincidence, that was the scoreline when the blues visited White Hart Lane in May 1968, when the blues last won the First Division title.
Will the blues win again and make it 20 wins at Spurs?