Key events
Pep has formed part of a football dynasty at the Etihad, of course. Take the current women’s team, managed by Andrée Jeglertz, who are marching towards the WSL title, currently hammering perennial champions Chelsea.
Here’s live coverage of the latter stages of that one.
Pep Guardiola has been Manchester City manager for more than a decade. Some stint. Here’s Rob Draper on the day English football changed forever.
That Spurs bench tells its own story. Thomas Frank has been beset by injuries for the bulk of the season. He’s without Maddison, Kulusevski, Kudus, Van de Ven, Bentancur, Bergvall, Porro and Davies today – and that’s just off the top of my head.
Archie Gray at right-back certainly has a job on his hands to contain Antoine Semenyo, who Spurs tried to sign earlier in the window. The former Bournemouth man has been electric sign he joined City, slotting straight into Pep Guardiola’s preferred XI.
Against a Spurs defence that has looked vulnerable to say the least of late, he will surely be licking his lips.
Team news
Tottenham: Vicario; Gray, Romero, Dragusin, Udogie; Palhinha, Bissouma, Gallagher; Kolo Muani, Solanke, Simons.
Subs: Kinsky, Tel, Odobert, Sarr, Souza, Olusesi, Kyerematen, Byfield, Rowswell.
Manchester City: Donnarumma; Nunes, Khusanov, Guéhi, Aït-Nouri; Rodri, O’Reilly, Bernardo Silva; Cherki, Haaland, Semenyo.
Subs: Trafford, Reijnders, Aké, Marmoush, González, Foden, McAidoo, Alleyne, Lewis.
Preamble
Welcome along to this the headline fixture of the Premier League weekend. Out-of-form Tottenham welcome title-challenging Manchester City in a game fans of both teams may well want City to win, given Spurs supporters’ preference to see Arsenal bottle fail to win the title.
There will be no such thoughts from Thomas Frank of course. The former Brentford coach desperately needs some league wins to go with his team’s positive Champions League campaign and, despite City’s lofty league standing, can have some hope of a decent result given this fixture’s recent history. Tottenham have won three of their last four games against Pep Guardiola’s side and eight of the last 15 dating back to 2020. People talk about Dr Tottenham but maybe City simply develop a strong case of Cityitis whenever they face Spurs.
It all gets under way at 4.30pm (GMT) at the the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Join us for team news and updates next, before match updates of course.
