King starts for Spurs

Ledley King has made a surprise return to Harry Redknapp's starting line-up for this afternoon’s eagerly-anticipated visit to Premier League leaders Manchester City.

King has been missing for four weeks with a hamstring injury so his presence is a major boost for Spurs, who have Jermain Defoe in attack in place of Emmanuel Adebayor, who cannot play against his parent club.

The return of Micah Richards at full-back is the only City change from Monday’s win at Wigan and Roberto Mancini’s men have the added advantage of knowing they would open up an eight-point lead on today’s opponents with a win.

Man City: Hart, Richards, Savic, Lescott, Clichy, Barry, Milner, Silva, Aguero, Nasri, Dzeko.

Subs: Pantilimon, Zabaleta, Johnson, Kolarov, Onuoha, De Jong, Balotelli.

Tottenham: Friedel, Walker, Kaboul, King, Assou-Ekotto, Lennon, Parker, Modric, Bale, Van der Vaart, Defoe.

Subs: Cudicini, Pavlyuchenko, Bassong, Dawson, Kranjcar, Livermore, Pienaar.

Referee: Howard Webb.