Tottenham Hotspur may give Man City a tactic dilemma with Erling Haaland

Manchester City will have some demons to exorcise when Tottenham Hotspur visit the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

Pep Guardiola's side will return to Premier League action following a convincing Champions League win on Tuesday, a 4-0 thrashing of Sevilla showcasing the Blues at their attacking best. City will look to continue their unbeaten start to the season this weekend, but in Spurs they will come up against one of the sides best-equipped to beat them.

Plenty of City fans — and maybe even Guardiola too — will still come across the events of February 19th this year in their nightmares. City lost 3-2 that day, a result that ended their unbeaten run in the league at 15 games and invited Liverpool to close the gap at the top of the table.

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Defensively, City were woeful on the day — Ruben Dias and Kyle Walker in particular — but their real issue was an inability to deal with Spurs' counter-attacks and quick transitions from defence to attack. City's line-up that day was filled with players well known for their ability to keep hold of the ball and not give possession away cheaply — Ilkay Gundogan in midfield and Bernardo Silva as the false nine — but still the ball came back at City before their were in the right positions to deal with it.

Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Dejan Kulusevski were superb that afternoon, and all three will likely feature in Antonio Conte's starting XI on Saturday. One would expect City's defenders to produce much better individual performances than they did seven months ago. But the way Guardiola's have played so far this season, they could once again find it difficult to contain Spurs' attack.

With Erling Haaland up front