Man City vs Tottenham LIVE: Premier League result, final score and reaction as Riyad Mahrez completes comeback

Jack Grealish is in great form for Manchester City having scored one goal and made three assists in his four league appearances since the World Cup.

Will he cause more problems when he starts tonight?

Pep Guardiola has lost three of his previous five meetings against Antonio Conte in all competitions, making him the only manager he has faced five times or more to have better than a 50% win record against him.

If some managers see football as a battle, Pep Guardiola appears to deem it more of a puzzle. It is less about outfighting than outthinking his opponents. The game appeals to the intellectual in him, the challenge of putting all the pieces in the correct places at the right time. His critics may argue he complicates matters needlessly, altering the equation by adding Jack Grealish or Erling Haaland to a successful formula.

Deep into his seventh season at Manchester City, Guardiola’s longevity can be explained by the resources at his disposal. Yet he claims that “people understand that in the last five or six years we are the seventh team in net spend in this country and the 12th or 13th in Europe”.

Such claims may invite scepticism, but an explanation for his continued presence in Manchester lies in the stimulation the Premier League provides. Guardiola probably did not expect his former assistant Mikel Arteta to have an eight-point lead at the summit now, but in recent years the division has provided perhaps the greatest collection of coaching talent any domestic league has ever had.

Man City have kept just three clean sheets in their last 11 outings in all competitions with all three coming against Chelsea. Their tally of three league defeats this campaign has already equalled their total from last season.

Antonio Conte’s Tottenham side have one first-half goal in their last 14 games in all competitions, including none in each of their last six away.

They have conceded two or more goals in 11 Premier League fixtures this season with only Bournemouth have a worse record

At a fraught point in the Manchester derby, Pep Guardiola felt he had to get something off his mind. The Catalan called Erling Haaland over and intensively gave the Manchester City forward a series of instructions.

As he listened, the Norwegian didn’t look anywhere near as enthused about any of this as his manager. Haaland stood there with his hands on his hips. That might have been down to his generally impassive appearance, but it came as part of a very passive performance.

Haaland was barely involved in the game, with only 19 touches, and two shots. Even Jack Grealish beat him to a header for a goal that could have been his, effectively removing the forward from what he is supposed to be there for.

Tottenham are looking to win consecutive away league games for the first time this season. Spurs have lost all four of their Premier League matches this campaign against teams currently above them in the table.

Manchester City could go three successive home league games without a win for just the second time under Pep Guardiola, previously doing so in 2016.

Guardiola’s side last lost two Premier League matches in a row in December 2018.

Pep Guardiola has accepted the blame for Manchester City’s recent downturn in form and the break in supply to Erling Haaland up front.

The champions have fallen eight points behind Arsenal at the top of the Premier League after winning just one of their last three games in the competition.

That sequence includes last Saturday’s frustrating and controversial derby loss to Manchester United while City also slumped to an unexpected Carabao Cup quarter-final loss at Southampton a week ago. City mustered just one shot on target across the games against Southampton and United while Haaland, scorer of 27 goals already this season, has not found the net in his last three outings.

Manchester City have lost four of their last five Premier League fixtures against Tottenham, as many defeats as in the previous 19 meetings.

Spurs, along with Chelsea, have earned an unsurpassed 27 victories against Manchester City in the Premier League and they could become the first team to win three consecutive league matches against a side managed by Pep Guardiola.