View: 100% Tottenham star will surely be licking his lips after Man City injury update

Pape Matar Sarr will be licking his lips ahead of the clash against Manchester City as Pep Guardiola revealed Mateo Kovacic will be missing against Tottenham.

The 22-year-old has become a mainstay in the Spurs midfield this season and scored the eventual winner against this weekend’s opponents in the recent 2-1 win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the Carabao Cup.

However, he will be expected to start again at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday [23 November] and the midfield battle is set to become a lot more desirable for Sarr as Guardiola confirmed in his pre-match press conference [22 November] that Kovacic has joined Rodri on the injury list at Manchester City.

He said: “Kovacic is injured. It will be a while, three weeks or a month.”

Pape Matar Sarr can run riot for Tottenham against Manchester City

When Manchester City travelled to North London for the recent EFL Cup tie, the visitors fielded a midfield three of Ilkay Gundogan and academy prospects James McAtee and Nico O’Reilly.

While Guardiola signalled his lack of interest in that competition, the Spaniard will be forced to field another weakened midfield trio against Spurs.

Sarr certainly enjoyed himself in the reverse fixture and ran the show for Spurs, completing 100 per cent of his passes and scoring his goal from one shot on target, resulting in a 100 per cent shot conversion rate [Sofascore].

Furthermore, he won 55 per cent of his duels and made three tackles as he dominated the midfield battle at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

This is likely to be the case again at the Etihad; the Senegalese international is enjoying a remarkable resurgence under Ange Postecoglou this term and is producing top-level performances across several key metrics in the Premier League.

He ranks in the top 15 percentile for aerial duels won, 18 percentile for recorded shots, 17 percentile for assists and 23 percentile for duels won across all top-flight midfielders [Fotmob].

Tottenham desperately need a win to keep their hopes alive in the race for Champions League qualification, while Manchester City risks falling further behind Liverpool in the race for the Premier League title.

The clash on Saturday evening could be decided in the middle of the park – Sarr could be the reason Postecoglou returns to North London with a monumental three points secured.

In other Tottenham news, Rodrigo Bentancur set for a new punishment as Spurs are set to pay ‘many thousands’.

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