Man City v Tottenham Predicted Starting Lineups for Premier League Match Amid Romero Update.
Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur will go head-to-head in the Premier League at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday evening as both sides return to domestic action following the international break.
City are in their worst form since Pep Guardiola became manager nine years ago after suffering four consecutive defeats in all competitions, conceding their lead to lose against Brighton last time out. Spurs on the other hand come into this game on the back of a surprise home defeat to Ipswich before the break, with Ange Postecoglou under pressure to start finding results more consistently.
Both teams are battling with injury issues to key players too ahead of this big game, and this is how GIVEMESPORT expect both sides to line up.
Man City Team News
Kovacic out injured
Manchester City midfielder Mateo Kovacic
City have been dealing with a host of injury problems this season and Guardiola has confirmed things haven’t changed, with Croatia midfielder Mateo Kovacic joining their injury list during the break and set to miss the next 3-4 weeks.
Ruben Dias is still out injured but John Stones, Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake have returned to training, while Rodri is expected to be out for the remainder of the season.
Guardiola Drops Team News Update
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Guardiola shared an update on the fitness of his squad.
“Kovacic is injured. It will be a while, a few weeks or one month. 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.”
Man City Predicted XI
Kevin De Bruyne to start
Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne during a pre-match warm-up
Man City Predicted XI: Ederson; Walker, Akanji, Stones, Gvardiol; Gundogan, De Bruyne, B. Silva; Savinho, Haaland, Foden.
Man City Predicted Substitutes: Ortega (GK), Ake (DEF), Simpson-Pusey (DEF), Wilson-Esbrand (DEF), Nunes (MID), McAtee (MID), O’Reilly (MID), Grealish (FWD).
Guardiola will be delighted to have several first-team defenders back available to him, but with Rodri and Kovacic out he now has a shortage in midfield that will see some shuffling needed. Ilkay Gundogan should start as the deepest midfielder, while Phil Foden can start alongside Erling Haaland and Savinho in attack. Kevin De Bruyne is fit again and should get the nod from the start too.
£153m duo Nunes and Grealish should start on the bench.
Tottenham Team News
Romero and Van de Ven to miss out
Tottenham Hotspur defender Cristian Romero in action
Spurs have got a defensive crisis of their own currently as first-choice central defensive partnership Cristian Romero and Micky Van de Ven look set to miss out on the game through injury. Van de Ven is still recovering from a hamstring injury and is believed to be a few weeks away, while Romero withdrew from international duty due to a foot issue after featuring in their first game.
Richarlison and Wilson Odobert are long-term absentees with hamstring problems, while Rodrigo Bentancur begins his seven-game suspension for using a racial slur.
Postecoglou Drops Team News Update
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Postecoglou dropped an update on the fitness of his squad following the international break.
“We’re really happy for Cristian and his wife on the birth of their baby girl. He’s still not 100%, so he’s a doubt for the weekend. Everyone else on internationals got through well.
“For the most part, they are still coming back into the building (from their respective international duties), but it looks like most of them came through it okay… it didn’t look like there were too many issues.
“The only one with a little bit of an issue is (Cristian) Romero, so we’ll just see how he is over the next couple of days.”
Tottenham Predicted XI
Maddison battling to start
Tottenham Hotspur midfielder James Maddison celebrates
Tottenham Predicted XI: Vicario, Porro, Dragusin, Davies, Udogie; Bissouma, Sarr; Johnson, Kulusevski, Son; Solanke.
Tottenham Predicted Substitutes: Forster (GK), Gray (DEF), Spence (DEF), Maddison (MID), Bergvall (MID), Werner (FWD), Moore (FWD), Lankshear (FWD).
With Romero and Van de Ven likely to miss out, veteran Ben Davies should fill in at centre-back alongside Radu Dragusin. That means Postecoglou will want extra protection in midfield with Sarr and Bissouma, leaving £40m man James Maddison on the bench once again.
