Ultimate Tottenham vs Man City XI has no room for Bale

A little over a year ago, Jose Mourinho rocked up at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to succeed Mauricio Pochettino as Tottenham boss. Since then, Spurs have welcomed Manchester City to north London, securing a 2-0 win over the Cityzens, as Mourinho got one over old adversary Pep Guardiola. 

The Spurs boss will be looking for a repeat of that victory this evening as the north London side seek to extend their unbeaten run to eight games and, perhaps temporarily, move back to the summit of the Premier League. Saturday's welcome of City won't be easy to navigate, of course. City are unbeaten in five in the build up to the weekend's tantalising encounter, but who comes out on top in the combined XI ahead of this clash? 

Using our unique rating system, using league and European ratings from the 2020/21 season, we have formulated a side of those to have made five or more appearances, and excluding those injured or suspended for this clash. 

Between the sticks, it's Spurs captain Hugo Lloris (6.44) who edges out Ederson (6.38) to kick off this XI, but in the back four, it's Manchester City who dominate. Former Spurs man Kyle Walker (6.82) operates at right-back, while on the opposite flank, Joao Cancelo (7.20) keeps Sergio Reguilon (7.07) out of the side. Matt Doherty (7.21) would have featured at right-back, but his positive COVID-19 test rules him out of the welcome of Manchester City. 

Summer signing Ruben Dias (6.89) makes the grade at centre-back and is joined at the heart of the defence by Tottenham's Toby Alderweireld (6.79). Aymeric Laporte (6.65) hasn't made enough appearances this season to come into consideration, though he wouldn't have featured anyway. 

City and Spurs have one player each at the base of the midfield in this 4-2-3-1 setup, with Rodri (6.82) linking up with summer signing Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (6.97). The former Bayern man will be keen to showcase his talent to former boss Guardiola here. 

In the final third, Kevin De Bruyne (7.45) operates in the number 10 role and is flanked by England international Raheem Sterling (7.17) and South Korean star Son Heung-Min (7.56). The former is a doubt having sustained a calf injury on international, and given his league and European rating this season, Guardiola will hope to have him fit to feature. 

Son, meanwhile, has a fine record against City and he'll be out to continue that run on home turf. Spearheading the attack is the Premier League's top rated player. Harry Kane (8.17) has impressed both domestically and on the continent this season having scored eight goals and provided nine assists in the Premier League and the Europa League group stage to round off a combined XI that City edges with six players to Spurs' five.