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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Daniel Murphy

Man City could learn if they've made two transfer mistakes vs Tottenham

First game without Cancelo

The trip to North London will be Manchester City's first game since Joao Cancelo left for Bayern Munich. The full-back has already made an impact in Germany with an assist on his debut which shows, even if he wasn't playing much in recent weeks, just how good of a player they have allowed to leave without replacing.

Nathan Ake has been playing excellently himself but the pressure will now be on the Dutchman to maintain his high-performance levels as there is not an awful lot of depth. Sergio Gomez is the only natural left-back at the club but he is not close to the first team at the moment, leaving Aymeric Laporte and Rico Lewis as the only other alternatives.

John Stones is already facing a month out with a hamstring injury and any more absences in defence could prove costly. Pep Guardiola made a bold decision in sacrificing Cancelo to maintain harmony in the squad and it will soon be revealed if it was too big of a risk or not.

Also read: Guardiola hints at Man City double standards after Chelsea's £300m transfer window

Huge opportunity

For the first time in months, Arsenal suffered a serious setback as they fell to only their second defeat of the season to Everton. The new manager bounce is a lethal storm to be stuck in.

The Gunners are still five points ahead but Sunday gives City a huge chance to shrink that gap down to two points and pile the pressure on an inexperienced team.

You could see the first strains of pressure on Arsenal as they struggled to find an equaliser at Goodison Park and some players, even one who has been there and done it in Aleks Zinchenko, began to lose their cool. It's hot at the top and City need to turn up the heat even further.

If they do, the title will be in their hands as the two sides still have to play each other twice with the first meeting coming on February 15.

End the curse

Although Guardiola was notoriously not best pleased with the display, his team still did well to defeat Tottenham a fortnight ago. They are City's bogey side and perhaps the worst opponents they could have had off the back of two defeats. To then go 2-0 down really could have seen them crumble. But instead, they rallied, got the win and the monkey off the back.

But this time around they will have to slay a demon. City have not only never won at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in five previous attempts but they haven't even scored there, despite having two penalties. The longer the curse continues the harder it will be to end. Spurs are very beatable, despite a couple of good January additions, so it's the perfect opportunity to finally win there.

Can Foden get back in the team?

Phil Foden is back available for the first time in two matches after a brief injury but the question remains will he even find a way back into the side? The last three games he started were the defeats by Southampton and Manchester United as well as the win over Chelsea, which was only earned once he was taken off and Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez were introduced.

That duo, especially the latter, have been in brilliant form in recent weeks and have done nothing to warrant being dropped from the side, especially in such a big game. It will be great to have Foden back as an option but he may well have to bide his time before he is making meaningful starts again.

Could another transfer decision backfire?

Three-and-a-half-years after signing for City Pedro Porro is back in England and could make his Spurs debut on Sunday after signing from Sporting. The Blues know how good he is after two fine displays in the Champions League last season but Guardiola says the club didn't consider bringing him back.

"Perfect to play five at the back, last season we suffer when we play against Sporting," the boss said. "This season Tottenham vs Sporting, a good signing for Spurs. No [we didn't think about re-signing], he was on the list but we didn't think about the buy-back. He decides to go to Spurs."

Perhaps Porro will prove City were wrong not to consider him.

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