Manchester City Injury News – Another Star Could Miss Spur Clash
Yaya Toure has emerged another major doubt ahead of the English Premier League encounter between title holders Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspurs on Saturday, 18th October. Toure represented Ivory Coast in the African Nations Cup qualifier against DR Congo on Wednesday and would have less than 24 hours to prepare for the EPL encounter as he is expected to travel back to his club on Thursday. This casts a shadow of doubt on the gangling midfielder’s availability for the match as Manuel Pellegrini may want to rest him anticipating his contribution against their UEFA Champions League opponent next week.
This would represent a blow for Pellegrini and his team as they look to pile some pressure on the table toppers, Chelsea for this season’s English Premier League title defence. Manchester City sits on the 2nd spot on the EPL table. Manchester City had already lost Stevan Jovetic, who was substituted in the 74th minute in the Euro 2016 qualifier for Montenegro and was observed to have limped out. It is not clear whether the forward would be available for City’s match against Spurs this weekend after the international break but Manuel Pellegrini would certainly be concerned about this. Last season, under the management of Andre Villas-Boas, Tottenham Hotspurs was mauled 6-0 by Manchester City at the Etihad and in the return fixture at White Hart Lane, this time under Tim Sherwood, the North London club was embarrassed yet again in front of their supporters and home crowd, they were embarrassed by losing 5-1 against Manuel Pellegrini’s Manchester City side. Now, the likely unavailability of Stevan Jovetic and Yaya Toure may dampen the chance of another annihilation of the Mauricio Pochettino lads.
Tottenham occupy the 6th position with 11 points from 7 games. However, Mauricio Pochettino may just deploy a different approach to the Manchester City game later this month. Tottenham Hotspurs’ draw against Arsenal surely is a morale booster for the North London club and it is likely to spur them into performing wonderfully well against the Manuel Pellegrini side. With players in the squad like Emmanuel Adebayor, who would face his former club, Etienne Capoue, Danny Rose, Jan Vertonghen, Chadli and Eriksen, Spurs should be able to mount a strong challenge against the Premier League title defenders. Tottenham Hotspurs travel to Manchester to play City at the Etihad stadium on the 18th October, 2014 in a lunch time match fixture and many Spurs and City fans look forward to this big game with so much anticipation of a good showing by their teams.
Without Jovetic and Toure though, the City side is blessed with Edin Dzeko, the Bosnian talismanic forward and Sergio Aguero, the Argentinean. Other than these attackers, the midfield talents of David Silva, former Gunner Samir Nasri and Jesus Navas, would make it hard for any team to overcome them in the English Premier League and in Europe. Therefore, it is more of a fight for Tottenham Hotspurs than it is for Manchester City despite the likely absence of Yaya Toure and Stevan Jovetic.