In most games, Manchester City step onto the pitch knowing they are the better team - and their opponents are aware of that too.
Saturday's clash with Tottenham should be one of the rare occasions where there could be some doubt in City minds, given Spurs' decent recent record at taking points from the Blues or knocking them out of cup competitions. With Harry Kane and Heung-min Son, City can never relax against Tottenham, who will always fancy their chances of getting a result against Pep Guardiola's men.
However, comments have emerged from new Spurs boss Antonio Conte that will focus minds in the visiting squad on their own issues when they travel to City on Saturday.
Just two-and-a-half years after knocking out City on the way to the Champions League final, Spurs couldn't be much further away from this weekend's opponents, who will walk out at the Etihad in a completely contrasting frame of mind.
City beat Sporting in Lisbon by 5-0 on Tuesday to take a huge step towards the Champions League final, and will hope to have some of their injured or absent players back on Saturday.
Despite their statement win, Bernardo Silva called City's performance 'sloppy' and 'lucky', while Pep Guardiola said some players underperformed and challenged his side to improve on the ball. Any signs that City may get complacent after their big win was gone within minutes of the full-time whistle, and they arguably have something to prove this weekend.
Not only do they have Guardiola's challenge to respond to, City will also be reacting to Liverpool's result against Norwich earlier in the day, knowing what three points will do for the state of the title race.
Normally, Tottenham would be a hugely difficult game - and this will be no different - but the news of Conte's eyebrow-raising comments to Sky Italia this week add a new dimension to preparations.
Conte said Spurs were 'weakened' on paper after their January transfer business, and referred to a difficult situation within his squad after losing a number of key first team players in the last two transfer windows, with a younger, inexperienced make-up of the squad now.
"Tottenham is looking for young players, players to be developed, not ready players," he said.
"It is inevitable that if you want to grow faster and if you want to be competitive more quickly you need players with a lot of experience because they also lead to an increase in experience in your team. But then again, the vision of the club I realised is this and will continue to be this.
"For this reason it will take a lot of patience, and I continue to explain it to the whole environment and to the fans."
Conte added that Spurs are working on 'adding character' to the squad, saying: "Should you find something like this, it is always difficult to make comparisons, but surely when you take the job in a team that hasn't won for a long time it is inevitable that you will lack confidence. The confidence is down and many times at the first obstacle you throw yourself down and many times the negativity increases even more, sometimes you grant goals that you struggle to accept.
"This has been happening to us in the last period. This is part of a process of a team that has to grow a lot to try to be competitive."
So Spurs will not arrive to the Etihad with confidence as they have in recent seasons, but knowing their manager had publicly called out their lack of experience, character and positivity.
It's an admission that couldn't contrast any sharper with where City are - on a fine run, but still with plenty of motivation. If Spurs want to beat City, they'll first have to prove they have the character their manager doesn't think they have.
