Manchester City will have a near-fully fit squad for the first time this season when they welcome Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium.
Jack Grealish has picked up another injury but Josko Gvardiol is almost fit. Kevin De Bruyne was a sub at Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium and was brilliant on Tuesday against Luton Town, providing three assists in Erling Haaland’s five goals.
Pep Guardiola was hoping to feature all three on Sunday’s derby match against United on. John Stones’ fitness is a continuous worry. Guardiola said: “He’s still not top but Manu (Akanji) and John are back. John has had a lot of setbacks this season and he’s not like Phil (Foden) for example who only needs two training sessions to be fit and ready.”
Stones is back in his defender-midfielder role and the coach is relying on Bernado Silva, Foden and Rodri to have the ability to keep the ball and control the centre moving forward. Haaland’s extra training early this week paid dividends and he has regained his lethal scoring touch.
After United’s disastrous 2-1 loss to Fulham, Erik Ten Hag knows he is fighting to keep his job at the end of the season. The Red Devils are sixth in the standings, eight points behind fourth-placed Aston Villa.
Qualifying for European football is essential to Ten Hag’s survival. He needs his players to step up and play their hearts out since the injuries are mounting up.
Rasmus Hojlund has been ruled out for two or three weeks with a muscular problem. Luke Shaw might not be available for the rest of the season. Mason Mount is still missing and Anthony Martial had groin surgery last month.
Lisandro Martinez is not back until April and Tyrell Malacia has not played all season. Ten Hag has looked at moving Marcus Rashford to the centre and is considering bringing back Anthony.
He celebrated his 24th birthday last Sunday and as he made a wish when blowing out his candles, I think it was probably to play well this weekend if selected.
Winger Omari Forson has been promoted to the senior squad and like Liverpool, United have brought several youngsters in from the academy to train with the first-team squad.
Ten Hag has again been criticised that United have no focus. With City you can almost predict, out from the back, through Rodri, up to De Bryune or Foden and on to Haaland. It has worked time and again. United seem to play left, right, centre, almost anywhere and with fingers crossed.
Ten Hag defended his decision not to include Anthony until the dying minutes of the match against Fulham.
He said: “It had nothing to do with fitness. He is fit but we have many options on the right side where we lack in other positions due to injuries. The form Anthony is in — we have all seen it — he has to step up. I see it in training but also Omari Amad (Diallo) and (Alejandro) Garnacho deserve to play.”
Tottenham vs Crystal Palace
Seeing new Crystal Palace coach Oliver Glasner directing his team from the touchline was both inspiring and a little sad for Palace fans. Roy Hodgson had stepped down and Glasner was the running show.
His first impressions of his new team was positive as they swept aside Burnley in a 3-0 win. New signing from Blackburn, Adam Wharton, looks to have solved Palace’s midfield problems and wingback Daniel Munoz is showing speed and energy on the right side of the field.
Glasner is hoping to play midfielder Eberechi Eze, who is close to returning to the match-day squad. Marc Guehi is out for the rest of the season after undergoing knee surgery and Michael Olise will probably be missing.
Winning against lowly Burnley will not count for much when Palace visit Tottenham on Saturday. When we asked the new coach how he would turn around Palace’s fortunes, he simply said: “I will get them scoring goals and playing entertaining, positive football.”
As a cautionary note in case Palace fans were getting carried away, he added: “But I am no magician.” I was amused by that remark because it is exactly what Ange Postecoglou said when he took over at Spurs. Perhaps they have the same speech writer.
The Tottenham coach also has a lot riding on this match following their home defeat to Wolves.
He is hoping that Destiny Udogie will be fit to play and Pedro Porro said the break had given him time to recover at full back although I noticed he did not attend full training. Because of their extended break this looks good for Tottenham.
