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Man City v Spurs: Goals should be on the cards with Spurs involved...

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Pablo Luna - Moonlighting for Betfair. Pablo tells us why the Dunne/Richards partnership should be praised and why Eriksson's tactics shouldn't ahead of playing Spurs at the Eastlands

Manchester City entertain Tottenham Hotspur this Sunday 16 March 2008 kick off 16:00 and it will give us an opportunity to see how much Ramos has improved Spurs against a Manchester City side that are seriously on the slide. To make matters worse for City there are real problems upstairs with their Thai chairman Thaksin and some alleged human rights abuse! He denies the allegations but distractions only hinder a football club. He is currently trying to clear his name and reclaim £800m of frozen assets so that he can boost City's coffers.

This mid table clash will see City without influential figures like Dunne, Richards and the suspended Petrov. Hopes of City securing a UEFA Cup place look dim and distant and after this game will look even worse.

After a bright start, which caught everybody by surprise, their season has degenerated into a tedious lamentable excuse and makes a mockery of its billing as entertainment! They now play like Sven-Goran Erkisson's personality - boring. At home they find it impossible to break teams down and cannot score goals. Elano, whose form has nose-dived in recent weeks, is their top league scorer with 5 goals. I would be pretty glum if I was a Manchester City supporter...

The one successful story this season to come out of the City of Manchester Stadium is the partnership of Richard Dunne (29) and Micah Richards (19). It is an impressive and complementive relationship that suits both players. Dunne takes care of the early balls while Richards, with his electric speed, tidies up behind. All pundits have now accepted that Dunne is a decent, honest player and Richards is constantly reminding people how he has helped him with his game.

Micah Richards is a marvellous player and destined for greatness. Although City need him in the centre of defence I prefer him at right back where he has looked pure class for England. He makes Gary Neville look boring and has effectively ended his England career! The way he links defence to attack is exceptional, he can score goals from set pieces and open play and was credited with giving Wright-Phillips his best two games for England. He is currently injured but he should be available for the final few games.

Tottenham suffered painfully in the UEFA Cup defeat to PSV Eindhoven in a penalty shoot out on Wednesday night but I predict that with the extra day off before his match they will have too many guns for poor City.

They will roast Citys' makeshift defence and I confidently expect an away win, especially if Dunne does not play (gashed leg).

Current prices with Betfair show Manchester City at [2.76] with Tottenham [2.78] and the draw [3.4]. Spurs are almost guaranteed to score twice so over 2.5 goals is interesting at [2.14]. Half-time/Full-time show Spurs trading at a tempting [4.9]. In this game you can be assured that Ramos will want to get at Manchester City and banish those UEFA Cup blues quickly. He will be thinking of next year and will not want to meander to the end of the season.

In the last nine games Juande Ramos will be deliberating on who to keep and who to get rid of, he would have some players earmarked to sign in the close season. Tottenham are about to improve, they have quite a good squad now and with a little tinkering it could become strong and I see them as top six material for next season, especially if they resist offers for Berbatov. Selling Lennon for £10m would be good business, he is a peripheral player and will not win you games week in week out. I am not sure how he has got the rave revues that he has, crosses are poor and does not score, am I missing something? Surely you can only use the phrase 'showing promise' for so long?

Anyway, these are interesting times for Tottenham (boring ones for Manchester City). My predicted score for the match: Manchester City 1 (Robinson og) Tottenham Hotspur 3 (Berbatov, Keane, Jenas). I wonder what odds this happening? I see that Mark Lawrenson has predicted a 1-0 to the home side. What does he know?