Manchester City vs Tottenham Hotspur: Manchester City Predicted XI | Premier League 2019/20
Defending champions Manchester City will be hosting Tottenham Hotspur in the first game at Eithad Stadium this, with Pep Guardiola's side coming into the game after registering an emphatic 5-0 win against West Ham at the London Stadium last weekend.
Last year's Champions League finalist, Tottenham Hotspur come into the game after a 3-1 win against newly-promoted Aston Villa, although their victory wasn't as resounding as the scoreboard showed.
All the three goals for The Lilywhites came in the last 20 minutes, after they went behind in the 9th minute of the game.
Leroy Sane and Fernandinho will not be available for City. The former is out with an ACL injury, whereas the latter still lacks match fitness. With that, we look at how could Manchester City lineup against Spurs.
PREDICTED XI
Defence
Ederson is the undisputed number one choice and will keep his place between the sticks. He opened his clean sheet account for this season in the previous game where he made three saves. Joao Cancelo is still new to England, hence starting Kyle Walker at the right-back spot looks a more sensible option for now.
John Stones and Aymeric Laporte are the best two options for the centre-half position after the departure of Vincent Kompany. Collectively, they won 12 duels and had a passing accuracy of more than 90% against West Ham. In the absence of Benjamin Mendy, Oleksandr Zinchenko is set to get another start at th left-back spot.
Midfield
New signing Rodri will continue in the deep midfielde role as he did on his Premier League debut. He made 65 passes with an accuracy of 90%. One thing which he will want to improve upon is the number of times he lost possession (11).
Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva would slot in on the right and left central midfield spots respectively. They will have the duty to pierce through the midfield of Sissoko, Winks and Ndombele and create chances for the front three to convert.
Forward
Raheem Sterling is a definite starter for City, after bagging a hat-trick in the first game itself. He should start on the left-wing as Bernardo Silva, who didn't against West Ham, should be accommodated on the right side.
A choice between Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus has to be made by the Spanish manager. Both the players scored a goal each in the Premier League opener, but Jesus' goal was from open play whereas Aguero netted via a penalty.
The Argentine might get the nod ahead of the Brazilian because of his favorable record against Spurs. In 14 PL appearances against Spurs, he has scored ten goals and assisted three times.
