Man City desperate to bounce back against Tottenham

Spurs City
Yaya Toure is desperate to return to winning ways in the Premier League when Manchester City travel to Tottenham on Saturday after their surprise defeat at the hands of West Ham.

City started the league season in perfect fashion with five wins from five matches, but their 100 per cent record came to an end when they were beaten 2-1 at home by Slaven Bilic's side last Saturday.

Manuel Pellegrini's men bounced back with a convincing 4-1 League Cup victory at Sunderland on Tuesday and midfielder Toure has now set his sights on taking all three points at White Hart Lane.

"We have a tough game coming against Tottenham and we needed this relief, and confidence coming back," Toure said after the win at the Stadium of Light.

"City or even Chelsea, Arsenal, when they start losing or have a bad spell you get a lot of criticism.

"But we have experience in the squad - players like Joe Hart, Vincent Kompany and me - and we try to give the other guys confidence in these situations.

"We have big experienced players who hate losing because we have experience at the high level, and we just try to stay calm and restore confidence for the next game."

Pellegrini may have to make do without a number of first-team regulars at Spurs, as the likes of captain Kompany, David Silva (both calf), Eliaquim Mangala (muscular injury) and Samir Nasri (knock) all missed the trip to Sunderland.

But Sergio Aguero is fully fit again after he picked up a knock in the win at Crystal Palace a fortnight ago, and the Argentina striker - who has scored 10 times in seven Premier League outings against Spurs - is set to lead City's line at the Lane.

Tottenham, meanwhile, will be looking to move on from Wednesday's League Cup defeat against arch-rivals Arsenal and continue their climb up the table.

Mauricio Pochettino's men failed to win in their opening four Premier League games, but have taken maximum points from Sunderland and Palace in their last two outings.

Speaking after the loss to Arsenal, Pochettino said: "There were a lot of positives, but in the end the feeling is bad because it was a derby and we all had the motivation to win this game.

"Now we need to prepare for City. We have one day less because they played Tuesday and we have to be strong."

Pochettino has no new major injury worries ahead of City's visit, with Nabil Bentaleb as their most notable absentee due to an ankle problem. Ryan Mason (knee) remains a doubt.
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