Manchester City and Tottenham meet at the Eithad this weekend with both sides out to continue their thrilling starts to the new Premier League season.
Pep Guardiola’s side swept Wolves aside last Saturday with Erling Haaland scoring twice with Tijjani Reijnders looking superb on his competitive debut following his summer arrival from AC Milan.
City were without a number of stars that afternoon with Phil Foden and Rodri watching on from the stands with Josko Gvardiol not making the trip to Molineux.
Guardiola suggested Foden and Rodri were close to making the matchday squad last week with the City boss expected to provide a further update on the trio in his pre-match press conference on Friday.
They are set to remain without Mateo Kovacic who is recovering from an Achilles injury which is expected to sideline him until September at the earliest.
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Savinho, linked with a move to Tottenham, is also expected to be ruled out for a few weeks having missed City’s final pre-season match and their league opener last weekend.
Spurs enjoyed a sparkling start to life under Thomas Frank, thrashing Burnley 3-0 in their opener. They too however are dealing with a handful of injury concerns.
In addition to long-term absentees James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Radu Dragusin, Yves Bissouma missed last weekend’s victory after picking up a knock in training. The former Brighton midfielder missed the Uefa Super Cup clash with Paris Saint-Germain due to disciplinary reasons with the severity of the issue still to be disclosed.
Destiny Udogie meanwhile missed Tottenham’s entire pre-season tour and appears unlikely to be available for the trip to Manchester.
Summer signing Kota Takai is also still recovering from injury.
Man City XI to face Tottenham – Metro prediction
We suspect Guardiola may keep his cards close to his chest when it comes to injury updates on Friday. But given how efficiently his side eased past Wolves, the City boss may be tempted to stick with the same XI although Rayan Cherki could force his way in after his goal off the bench.
Tottenham XI to face Man City – Metro prediction
Dominic Solanke will be pushing for a starting role but after his double against Burnley, Richarlison will fancy his chances of keeping his place.
In midfield, the experienced Joao Palhinha could come in after making his debut off the bench last weekend.
Man City vs Tottenham TV channel and kick-off time
Man City vs Tottenham kicks off on Saturday 23 August with kick-off scheduled for 12:30pm.
You can watch the match live on TNT Sports 1 with streaming also available through the Discovery+ app
You can also follow all the action with Metro’s LIVE match day blog.