The last thing Antonio Conte and his Tottenham team need right now is a trip to Manchester City following two successive Premier League defeats.
Extremely poor last week as both Southampton and Wolves left Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with wins, Spurs have now lost five out of their nine games in all competitions in 2022 so far.
City, on the other hand, come into the fixture in stunning form having won 19 of their last 21 games, including Tuesday evening's 5-0 drubbing of Sporting CP in the Champions League.
Practically assured of their place in the quarter-finals unless they somehow collapse and the Portuguese side do the unthinkable at the Etihad Stadium in the return leg, Pep Guardiola stated after the game that the difference between the side was not 5-0.
His team may have scored four goals in the first half but Sporting did trouble them on a number of occasions but lacked their opponents' clinical edge.
Despite the fantastic result for the Premier League champions on their European return, Guardiola did state in his post-match conference that his team "can do better" and that some of his stars even "underperformed".
As Tottenham are next up at the weekend, Guardiola's comments should act as a warning to Conte and his players because they will be in for a long evening if City click and hit their top form.
"We defend with the ball and we have to take care of the ball better than we did today," explained the Spaniard in his post-match press conference, as reported by Manchester Evening News.
"One of the principal rules I have is when you have the ball, try to pass the ball to the guy who wears the same T-shirt as you. This is the first. After, we will see what happens. When they are alone and lost the ball, it makes no sense and this happened many many times.
"The difference between both teams was not 0-5, that's for sure. Today it was because we were so clinical and when this happens it is mentally difficult for the opponent and you are more confident and relaxed.
"Sometimes football is the margin of the first goal - offside or onside. When VAR took 30-45 seconds I thought maybe the margin of offside was like this [closes thumb and finger]. Sometimes the margin to win games is like that [gestures again] and all the analysis of how good one team is and how bad the other one is is from that margin.
"Maybe you have this duty but I have another one to see how they perform individually as a team and if we did the plan well or not. Don't misunderstand me: it's a dream, a perfect result and so good for the second leg, but we can do better."
He added: "Some players underperformed. We lost easy balls, but today we were so clinical. Every time we arrived [in the Sporting penalty area] in the first 20 minutes, we scored. The difference [between the performances] is not 0-5. They attack with lots of players and we punish them with counters.
"The players know me, we can do better. A few players didn't do what they have to do in the build-up."
