How Manchester City Will Line Up in Premier League Clash with Tottenham

Manchester City supporters are surely wistful for the Tim Sherwood era at Tottenham Hotspur. For that matter, the Andre Villas-Boas temporal blip at White Hart Lane was quite great for City, too. The Manchester club handled Harry Redknapp's charges with similar ruthlessness when the current QPR boss was at Tottenham's helm.

In the past four seasons, City have won six of their eight Premier League meetings. Two of them were 5-1 shellackings at the Lane, and one was the 6-0 mutilation at the Etihad last season.

The only result Spurs have from their last eight against City should come with an asterisk. The Citizens were in full-blown revolt against Roberto Mancini when Spurs beat them 3-1 in April 2013.

Both clubs seem content with their current managers. Manuel Pellegrini led City to the league title last season. It is too soon for Spurs to know exactly what they have in Mauricio Pochettino, but it is also too soon for anyone to be unhappy with him.

Here is a quick look at how Pellegrini might line up the Sky Blues for this match with Spurs. 

Goalkeeper

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Caballero may get one of his spot starts against Spurs.

Pellegrini has been stout in his refusal to let anyone outside the City changing room know who will start in goal for the club from match to match.

There is no inside intelligence informing this suggestion that Willy Caballero will start for City against Spurs. It is just a hunch.

Joe Hart was not exactly worn to a nub over the international break, but he did play two matches for England. The second one, a 1-0 win over Estonia, was tighter than England's No. 1 was likely hoping.

Hart will probably get the call for City's next Champions League Group E match at CSKA Moscow on Tuesday. As such, Pellegrini should give Caballero this start. 

Defense

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City will be looking for less "hands on head" moments from Mangala going forward.

It is long past time for Pellegrini to install Eliaquim Mangala next to Vincent Kompany at centre-back for City and live with the outcome, no matter what that is.

City are learning nothing every time they play Martin Demichelis at centre-back. He is capable of being an adequate Premier League starter, but he is not much more than that. Mangala was acquired for the purpose of raising City's defensive ceiling, both in league matches and in Champions League play.

As such, Mangala and Kompany should start this match.

Meanwhile, Pablo Zabaleta should get the start at right-back and Aleksandar Kolarov at left-back.

The latter should be given the start out of respect for his upstanding efforts to protect opposing players from hostile Serbian supporters in this past week's suspended match between Serbia and Albania.

Terrifying stuff, but as Alex Richards documented for the Daily Mirror, "Kolarov showed that simply being human can outweigh what's gone before." 

Midfield

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Lampard should start for City, because Yaya Toure probably will not.

With Yaya Toure returning to training in Manchester less than a day before City face Spurs, the giant Ivorian is likely to miss the Premier League showdown with an eye toward resting him for the CSKA Moscow match three days later.

"Pellegrini has options if he wishes to leave Toure out, with former Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard in particularly good form," noted Ian Ladyman for the Daily Mail.

That would be my choice, particularly if it is true that Lampard's loan at City from New York City FC really is still going to end in January.

City wouldn't be that dumb, would they? They poached a useful player from Chelsea right out from under their noses.

Anyway, Lampard should start in the middle of the park with Fernando. James Milner has done nothing to deserve getting benched for this match, so he should join David Silva in midfield to provide pace and width. 

Forwards

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Pellegrini should ride Aguero for as long as Aguero can run.

Sergio Aguero's fitness is like falling snow. You can never really predict how long it will last and how much of it you are going to get.

As such, Pellegrini has essentially no choice but to keep Aguero in the XI for as long as Aguero is fit to play. Given his history, the Argentine is exceedingly likely to miss a match or three in the coming months with a calf strain or a hamstring pull.

For now, though, he is healthy and he needs to play.

Health is rarely the concern with Edin Dzeko. His issue thus far this season is that of his 21 shots in Premier League play, only two have found the net. Pellegrini needs to keep running Dzeko out there in hopes that the Bosnian will relocate his scoring stroke and stop leaving so much of the responsibility on Aguero.