Tottenham Hotspur are obviously not where they want to be right now, but their Sunday clash with Manchester City is still the biggest match of the weekend. And one of their key players, Micky van de Ven, is touch-and-go for this affair. The man who has been clocked as the fastest player in the Premier League is nursing a knock, and he faces a late fitness test in order to make the matchday squad here.
“Micky is a minor one,” Tottenham manager Thomas Frank said earlier today.
Manchester City at Tottenham Hotspur FYIs
Kick: Sun. Feb 1, 4:30pm, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, UK
Team News: Man City Tottenham
Google Result Probability: Man City 56% Draw 23% Tottenham 21%
PL Form: Manchester City DDDLW Tottenham DDLLD
PL Standing: Manchester City 2nd, 46 pts Tottenham 14th 28 pts
Spurs Team News
“It will be touch-and-go for Sunday, we are hoping. He was on the pitch yesterday, [and] on the pitch today. So, hopeful for that, but it’s touch and go.” The other major update, outside of Van de Ven, is Pedro Porro.
Ahead of the 2-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday, Frank was ‘frank’ about the extent of the player’s hamstring injury
“He hasn’t travelled, unfortunately, he picked up a hamstring injury, three or four weeks,” Frank said.
So Porro is out until late February. Meanwhile Richarlison, Lucas Bergvall, Ben Davies, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur all remain sidelined as longer-term injury absentees.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, RG.org and Ratings.org. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Washington Post.