Manchester City will be hoping the November international break can provide a chance to refresh and refocus when they host Tottenham Hotspur in the final contest of Saturday’s Premier League slate.
Second-place City (7-2-2, 23 points) have lost four in a row in all competitions as they continue to navigate the absence of reigning Ballon d’Or winner Rodri to season-ending ACL surgery.
But all four defeats came away from Manchester during a hectic sequence that included a 2-1 League Cup defeat at Spurs on Oct. 30 and a Champions League loss at Sporting Lisbon.
Since then, the club has announced a contract extension for manager Pep Guardiola. Rodri is set to pay an emotional visit to City on Saturday with the Ballon d’Or trophy in tow.
Perhaps most importantly, center backs John Stones, Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake could be available after shorter injury layoffs.
“These 10 days some players recovered a little,” Guardiola said. “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.”
Despite the recent slide, City still enter the weekend only five points back of league leaders Liverpool, a similar position to what they’ve held at this time in the previous two seasons.
It’s 10th-place Tottenham (5-5-1, 16 points) who will be more disappointed with the start to their second league campaign under Ange Postecoglou.
Spurs have continued to play an attractive style under Postecoglou — with Dominic Solanke, Brennan Johnson, Heung-Min Son and James Maddison all contributing at least three league goals — but have been done in by inconsistent defending.
They haven’t posted back-to-back league wins since late September and were stunned in a 2-1 home loss to Ipswich heading into the break. And now they face playing the next seven domestic matches without midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur, who was suspended after making insensitive remarks about his teammate Son while on international duty.
“We are definitely a better side than we were last year,” Postecoglou insisted. “Within that context a lot of our players have developed more but within that context our results haven’t reflected that which is a major part of what you do.”
–Field Level Media
