Examining the nightmare record Spurs boss has against Guardiola

The remaining pair of unbeaten Premier League teams will do battle on Sunday with Manchester City visiting Tottenham in a first-v-second clash.

Although the focus will be on the two sides and how they propose to outdo one another, this is a meeting of managers that are well versed in each other’s tendencies.

Mauricio Pochettino and Pep Guardiola have faced off nine times as opposing bosses, with the Spaniard well and truly on top in the head-to-head stakes.

Each one of the previous tussles came when the current Citizens head honcho was in charge of Barcelona, and Pochettino was cutting his teeth in the management world at Espanyol.

To date, Guardiola has enjoyed victory over his Argentine counterpart five times, with three draws and just one solitary defeat also on his record.

Of course, it would have been tough for any tactician, bar those in charge of Real Madrid, to regularly challenge the supremacy of Barcelona during Guardiola’s tenure, such was the Blaugrana’s dominance in that time.

However, Pochettino has carved himself out as something of a defensive maestro during his time in England, with two of his three full seasons on these shores ending with his club inside the top 10 for fewest goals conceded.

So it is somewhat alarming to see that Barcelona’s aggregate score in their nine games against Pochettino’s Espanyol is 17-6, with the Catalan club scoring three or more goals on three separate occasions.

Spurs will hand the former Southampton gaffer a far sharper tool with which to attack Guardiola when he brings his Citizens squad to north London, but the hoodoo the Spaniard holds over Pochettino will surely remain a hard one to shake.

We go 19/10 that the Lilywhites hand out City’s first defeat of the season, with the draw at 12/5 and the visitors a 13/10 chance.

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