Manchester City may be out of the FA Cup, but they can soon switch their attention straight on to the Carabao Cup instead.
Saturday’s 1-0 semi-final defeat to Chelsea means City won’t be winning the FA Cup this year, killing off Pep Guardiola’s hopes for a quadruple.
Still, a treble is possible, and they have the chance to tick off the first trophy when they face Tottenham at Wembley on Sunday.
The game sees Guardiola and Jose Mourinho renew their rivalry once again, and City will be strong favourites given Tottenham’s poor form of late.
Spurs need any boost they can get ahead of this game; Kevin De Bruyne’s injury against Chelsea may well prove to be one such boost.
We’ll have to see how strong Guardiola goes against Spurs with the Champions League semi-finals on the horizon, and Ederson won’t be facing Tottenham.
Guardiola has told City’s official website that Zack Steffen is ‘for sure’ going to start against Tottenham, praising his performance against Chelsea.
“Yeah, he is going to play the League Cup final. For sure,” said Guardiola. “He made a good save and with the ball he was brilliant. Unfortunately, we could not be more clear in the final third. In general, as a performance, I don’t have many complaints,” he added.
Steffen actually came in for heavy criticism against Chelsea, as his positioning for Hakim Ziyech’s winner was questionable at best.
The American certainly isn’t Ederson, and Spurs may well pick him out as a potential weakness as they look to pull off something of an upset.
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