Walker returns as City make one change for key trip to Spurs | OneFootball

Kyle Walker returns as City make one change for Tuesday night’s crucial penultimate Premier League match of the season away to Tottenham Hotspur.

From the side that started Saturday’s fine 4-0 win at Fulham, skipper Walker is restored to the starting line-up in place of Nathan Ake, who reverts to the bench after having been forced off with a knock at Craven Cottage.

Otherwise, manager Pep Guardiola sticks with the team that performed so admirably at Fulham as we return to the capital for the second time in three days to contest our final away clash of the campaign.

Jack Grealish, who missed the trip to Craven Cottage through illness, returns to the matchday squad and is named on the substitute’s bench.

Teams

TOTTENHAM XI: To follow

Subs: To follow

CITY XI: Ederson, Walker (C), Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol, Rodrigo, Kovacic, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Foden, Haaland

Subs: Subs: Ortega Moreno, Stones, Ake, Grealish, Doku, Alvarez, Nunes, Bobb, Lewis

Tactics

Ederson, making his 250th Premier League appearance for City, will be the familiar figure between the sticks with the Brazilian goalkeeper shielded by a back four of returning skipper Walker, Manuel Akanji, Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol.

Rodrigo is set to act as the holding midfielder with Mateo Kovacic and Kevin De Bruyne also in the engine room.

Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva are expected to operate further forward with Erling Haaland operating as City’s striking focal point, though - as ever - such is City's tactical flexibility and fluidity that could be subject to change!

WATCH: City's best moments at Spurs

History in our sights

City will step out in North London this evening with our Premier League title fate firmly in our own hands.

The arithmetic for Pep Guardiola’s side is deliciously simple.

Two wins from our remaining two league fixtures and we will record an historic fourth successive Premier League men’s title win – a feat no other English side has ever achieved.

City will also go into the game on the back of a quite magnificent run of form.

The reigning champions are on a Club record run of 33 matches unbeaten in all competitions since we last suffered a defeat – 1-0 Premier League loss at Aston Villa back in December.

Another three points tonight would put City within touching distance of creating yet more history.

Capital gains

Up until this season, it’s fair to say the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium hadn’t been the happiest of hunting grounds for City.

Since its opening in 2019, Pep Guardiola’s men had not only slipped to defeat in four league fixtures at Spurs’ new ground, even more bizarrely we had also failed to register a goal – a stat almost unthinkable for such a vibrant, free-flowing City.

However, any mental demons were effectively exorcised in January of this year when we recorded a welcome 1-0 FA Cup fourth round victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Now comes our second trip there of the calendar year – another positive result and we’ll know that a fourth straight Premier League title will be one step closer.

WATCH: Guardiola: We have to do it again and again!

Stats and facts

● Tottenham have won each of their last four Premier League home games against City without conceding a single goal.

● Under Pep Guardiola, City have lost more Premier League games against Tottenham than they have vs any other opponent (6).

● Only Birmingham City (7 at Old Trafford) have played more Premier League games at a specific stadium without ever scoring than City’s four at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

● Tottenham have lost their final home league game in two of the last three seasons (W1), as many times as they had in the previous 17 campaigns (W13 D2).

● Having won our final away league game in nine of the 10 seasons between 2010-11 and 2019-20 (D1), City haven’t done so in any of the last three campaigns (D1 L2). However, we had already won the title at the time of those two defeats (v Brighton in 2020-21 and Brentford last season).

● City are unbeaten in our last 21 Premier League games (W17 D4) – only once have they ever had a longer run without defeat in the competition, going 30 games between April 2017 and January 2018.

● City have won our last four Premier League away games, winning each of the last three by an aggregate score of 10-0. Only once in our league history have we won four in a row on the road without conceding, doing so in March/April 1903 in the second tier.

● Tottenham’s Dejan Kulusevski has been directly involved in five goals in his four Premier League games against Manchester City, more than he has versus any other opponent in the competition (3 goals, 2 assists).

● Phil Foden and Jack Grealish scored for City against Tottenham in this season’s reverse fixture in December. The only players to score home and away against Spurs in a Premier League season for the Citizens are Sergio Agüero (2013-14 and 2014-15), Ilkay Gündogan (2017-18), and Raheem Sterling (2017-18).

● City’s Ederson is set to make his 250th Premier League appearance in this match. He’s kept 112 clean sheets in his 249 games so far, with Petr Cech (127) and Pepe Reina (119) the only goalkeepers to record more in their first 250.