Manchester City have Ruben Dias, John Stones, and Kevin de Bruyne back for Tottenham Hotspur clash
In what would come as a blow for Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City will have Kevin de Bruyne, Ruben Dias, and John Stones back for their game against Spurs on 19 January.
The Belgium midfielder was absent from training recently but manager Pep Guardiola has revealed the reason behind it. Speaking at his pre-match press conference, the Spanish tactician said (h/t Football.London):
“It was a personal issue, he could not train [on De Bruyne missing training on Tuesday]. Today, he is back. Yeah, yeah [on if De Bruyne is available for selection].”
Given his quality on the ball and how well he can pick out his teammates, the world-class Belgian will be the obvious threat for us in their midfield. He has managed three goals and six assists in 14 games against us across competitions in his career.
With the likes of Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, and Ilkay Gundogan, City may not have suffered a lot for quality if the former Chelsea playmaker was out. But to add to our woes, he could take to the field this Thursday.
Stones and Dias, meanwhile, have been Pep’s first-choice centre-backs in different phases of their Manchester City career. The Cityzens have Nathan Ake and Aymeric Laporte in their squad, but Stones and Dias are world-class in their own right.
They are apparently fit and available to face Spurs. Here is what the former Barcelona manager had to say about his centre-back duo:
“Yeah, they are back. The last two training sessions they have taken part in, really well. They are in contention.”
This doesn’t make things easy for us, although we are in a good run of form against them domestically. In our last six Premier League games against Manchester City, we’ve lost just once. Given their quality, this is an awesome record.
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Hopefully, we can extend it at the Etihad later this week. We can really use a win after that embarrassing 2-0 north London derby loss against Arsenal at N17.
