The two unbeaten teams from the Premier League face off at White Hart Lane, as both Spurs and Manchester City will be missing some of their most important players.
Manchester City will be without their captain Vincent Kompany, as well as midfield talisman Kevin de Bruyne. The Belgian tore a muscle in City’s game against Swansea City last week, and the trip to White Hart Lane will come too soon for him.
Spanish striker Nolito will also miss out on the game. The game against Spurs is the final game of the three match ban served to him by the FA for headbutting Bournemouth’s Adam Smith two weeks ago.
Tottenham will also be missing some key personnel. Their star striker Harry Kane suffered an ankle injury in the game against Sunderland two weeks ago, and it is being reported that he could miss up to eight weeks of action.
Midfielders Moussa Sissoko, Mousa Dembele and Eric Dier, as well as full-back Dany Rose are also battling minor injuries. Manager Mauricio Pochettino has stated that he cannot say for certain if they are ready to play against Manchester City.
“We need to assess them all in the last training session tomorrow and then see if they are ready to compete and available for Sunday,” said Mauricio after training on Friday, according to the official club website.
“We are very positive with some of them but we still need to assess them and see if they are in condition to play.”
Tottenham have enough squad depth to ensure that they can field very strong teams despite their injury woes. Jan Vertonghen can slip into the right-back role in place of Rose, with Kevin Wimmer coming into the Spurs central defence alongside Toby Alderweireld. Kyle Walker at left-back completes the back four ahead of keeper and captain Hugo Lloris.
Dele Alli will move into central midfield alongside Victor Wanyama, just behind an attacking midfield trio of Son Heung-Min, Christian Eriksen and Erik Lamela. Dutchman Vincent Janssen has the chance to shine in a central striker role in the absence of Harry Kane.
The same holds true for Man City, with the attack spearheaded by Argentine goal machine Sergio Aguero. Raheem Sterling, David Silva, Ilkay Gundogan and Leroy Sane will most likely be playing in midfield behind him, just ahead of the solitary defensive mid Fernandinho.
Former Barcelona keeper Claudio Bravo is set to start in goal, behind a first-choice back four of Aleksandar Kolarov, Nicolas Otamendi, John Stones and Bacary Sagna.
