please log in to view this image Sunday 3rd December 4.30pm Premier League Etihad Stadium Perisic, van de Ven, Maddison, Sessegnon, Solomon, Richarlison and Whiteman are still injured. They're rejoined by Bentancur and probably Sarr, too. Romero serves the last game of his ban, but Bissouma's has ended. Lineups for each side's last league game: Spurs: Vicario; Porro, Emerson, Davies, Udogie; Kulusevski, Bentancur, Lo Celso; Johnson, Son, Gil. Subs: Forster, Austin, Dier, Dorrington, Skipp, Hojbjerg, Donley, Veliz. League form: WWWLLL. City: Ederson; Walker, Dias, Ake, Akanji; Foden, Rodri, Silva, Doku; Alvarez; Haaland. Subs: Carson, Ortega, Lewis, Stones, Gvardiol, Phillips, Bobb. League form: LWWWDD. Ref: Simon "Well done, boys. Good process" Hooper. VAR: Robert "Scouse prick" Jones. TV: Sky Sports. How would you like to line up for this one and how do you think we actually will line up?
I think Dier has to come back into the side. Haaland will just steamroll through Royal. If it wasn't City away, I'd be tempted to play Dorrington next to him to give us some more pace. Vic Porro Dier Dorrington Udogie Bissouma Hojbjerg Kulu Lo Celso Johnson Son Forster, Royal, Davies, Skipp, Gil, Donley, Veliz on the bench with another 2 chosen from a prize draw before kick off.
If we can keep Haaland’s tally below 5, I’ll consider it a moderate success but with Emerson and Davies in the centre he could hit a league record for goals in a game. I’d written this fixture off since the start of the season though anyway as I felt before a ball was kicked that Ange’s style would get battered by Pep, more so now we have half a team. If there’s actually one time you want Jose/ Conte-ball it’s against Pep as it seems to be his kryptonite and we’ve had some great success with it over recent years, though it did also help having some bloke called Kane up top which we also no longer have. November was ****, the start of December will be ****, I just hope we can pick up some points after this game but it’s hard to see where they’re gonna come from at the moment.
I think the same eleven will start except Bissouma will replace Bentacur. City have fast skilful forwards so I can't see the advantage of Dier and Dorrington.
Yeah you can’t go toe to toe with City, it’s asking for trouble. With injuries and suspensions then you need to be pragmatic and frustrate them. If Spurs remain open like previous games then it could be 6 or 7.
We got slapped by them a few times under Poch due to our front foot philosophy back then I remember a 5 and a few 4’s could be wrong either way I’m glad it’s the last game of the weekend I can enjoy my Saturday
And if we sit deep and let them play around our mainly inept defenders the result could still be 6 or 7, I am backing the manager on this one even though I thought he got some things wrong last week. Sides who beat city at home don't do it by playing on the back foot generally, the one exception was us when we won 3-2 a couple of years back, but then we had a fellow who had the game of his life which considering his exploits for us over the last few years shows just how good Kane was that day.
This one is a "free throw" on the "season compass" , and always an opportunity to WUM the false messiah. Will be interesting to see how the manager approaches this one (we could be pleasantly surprised) .
I’m not even saying park the bus, just be a bit more responsible at the back. Spurs have been way too open at the back all season and long term that won’t translate into success.
We beat them in the cup they're not unbeatable.. you need to believe in your manager. I mean you were all licking up the contents of his digestive system until I returned.
City win pretty much every game at home anyway no matter how teams setup so why not try and go for it? We’re not going to defend ourselves to a draw so we’ll probably lose either way. May as well go down swinging. brilliant press conference from Ange again earlier, great clarity into why he’s thinking these things. We’ll be back to winning ways on Thursday, then the wins will start coming again. Decent run of fixtures to end the year.
TBH I'd prefer Emerson over Dier, giver Dier's complete lack of pace these days these days means that if (and, let's be honest, when) Haaland gets half a step on him it's just going to be embarrassing to watch It's a bugger that someone stamped on Ashley Phillips during the international break, as he has the pace to recover in situations like that or snuff out passes
This is how you know we’re up **** creek, we’re having to debate between who we’d rather start; Eric Dier or Emerson Royal
