An early meeting between two big Premier League teams is inevitable in the fourth round of the FA Cup 23/24. Defending champion Manchester City will visit Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday. This match has the potential to be a comeback for Spurs playmaker James Maddison after a long injury. Spurs need his presence, considering that Captain Son Heung-min is still competing in the 2023 Asian Cup.
James Maddison last played on November 6 last year, when Spurs were beaten 1-4 by Chelsea at home. In that match Madders only played 45 minutes, but after being examined he suffered a serious ankle injury. Even though the start of his debut with Spurs was sweet, he contributed 3 goals and 6 assists.
Ange Postecoglu confirmed this in the prescon before the match. He is really looking forward to Maddison’s return,”He’s trained all week and he’s fine. He’s available and ready to start. Whether they do or not depends on what I see with the other guys tomorrow and I usually make that decision on match day. The beauty of it is is that he’s had a really good week and is ready to play.” he said, quoted from Eurosport.
Meanwhile, last season’s treble-winners, Manchester City, have just lost two important figures. The first is a man named Omar Berrada who previously served as operational head of the City Group football division. Where apart from being in charge of Manchester City, he also heads other affiliated teams such as Girona and so on. Where it goes? Not far away, he remains in Manchester as the new CEO of Manchester United!! Omer Berrada’s profile can be seen in the following Mas Firzie article. (READ: Profile of Omar Berrada, New CEO of Man United Recruited from City)
The second loss was the England national team midfielder who was wasted by Pep, Kalvin Phillips. Until this article was published, Phillips appeared to have carried out a medical test for his loan period at West Ham United. David Moyes has had a big catch in this tough transfer window.
This is what is lacking from City management, where they seem to have difficulty retaining figures who can serve for a long period of time. When it comes to Berrada, perhaps the challenge of resurrecting the Red Devils’ glory under Sir Jim Ratcliffe is more exciting than being in the shadow of Pep Guardiola’s success. How does Pep respond? sarcastically he said something like this:
“Obviously the knowledge goes to United, that’s the reality. When you buy a player from another club, you buy the knowledge that the player has in the past. But Kevin De Bruyne is still at Man City, Erling Haaland is still playing here, so in the end it’s not it’s that simple. Maybe United thought with this guy everything would change. (I say) congratulations. I don’t know if this will happen.” he said, quoted from beinsports.
Let’s just prove it tonight whether Pep is right, or whether he will be punished for losing these two figures. Moreover, City have always been defeated by Spurs in their last 5 visits!
Tottenham Hotspur (4-2-3-1) : Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie; Hojbjerg, Bentancur; Johnson, Kulusevski, Maddison; Richarlison
Manchester City (4-2-3-1) : Ortega; Walker, Dias, Ake, Gvardiol; Rodri, Kovacic; Silva, De Bruyne, Foden; Alvarez
ASL
