Suddenly, Man City have seen a significant dip in form as they have suffered four defeats on the trot and things should get worse because on Saturday the Cityzens are scheduled to take on Tottenham Hotspur.
This four-game defeat streak started with a 2-1 loss to Spurs in the Carabao Cup and then they went on to lose to teams like Bournemouth and Sporting CP. Thankfully, Spurs have also seen a slight dip in form because they have lost their last two games.
Man City will be playing at home so they will very much be the favourites to win at the weekend however, these are absolutely uncharted waters for Pep Guardiola. The Spanish manager has lost four games in a row in all competitions for the first time in his managerial career and he will have to make sure that this unwanted record is not stretched any further.
Despite their dominance, Manchester City do not have a great recent record against Tottenham because, in their last five meetings across all competitions, City have won just two of them.
Manchester City’s team news and injuries:
Pep is going to receive some massive selection boosts for this crunch match because John Stones, Nathan Ake and Akanji are all back to full fitness and will be available for selection Ruben Dias, however, still misses out.
“Some of them [could be available], yes,” the manager has said at his Friday press conference. “John [Stones] trained good, Manu [Akanji] trained good. Nathan [Ake] is coming back to training, so we didn’t have any centre-backs and now we have three.
“Ruben [Dias] is out but hopefully back soon. Some players recover better.
“These 10 days some players recovered a little. I don’t know if they are ready to play 90 minutes or play from the beginning but to see the training session and see their faces was a really good boost for all of us.”
Grealish, Phil Foden and Doku have all trained this week after withdrawing from their respective national squads and the trio is expected to be available for selection at the weekend.
The return of so many key players will definitely be a plus for the Man City manager but there is going to be a major midfield crisis because Rodri is already a long-term absentee and now, Mateo Kovacic is also sidelined for a month.
“He (Kovacic] will be a while – three weeks or a month. More or less,” said Guardiola.
This is a major blow for Pep who will mostly likely use Gundogan and Rico Lewis in the central midfield roles. Gundogan has previously played in a CM position for both Man City as well as Barcelona however, the duo could find it hard to keep the likes of Son and Johnson in check for the whole 90 minutes.
Man City predicted lineup vs Spurs:
Predicted Starting XI(4-2-3-1): Ederson; Ake, Akanji, Walker, Gvardiol; Lewis, Gundogan; De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva/Savinho, Doku; Haaland.
