First half goals from Timo Werner and Pape Matar Sarr helped Tottenham Hotspur on their way to knocking Manchester City out of the Carabao Cup.
Matheus Nunes pulled one back just before the break but it ultimately wasn’t enough for the Blues, who will be more concerned by the apparent injuries picked up by Savinho and Manuel Akanji leaving them with just 11 fit outfield players for their match against Bournemouth on Saturday.
Here are three things we learned as City lost to Spurs:
Injuries are destroying this City side
The Blues are really suffering at the moment with as many as eight players unavailable.
Rodri is out for the season. Oscar Bobb is out until the new year at the very least and Kevin de Bruyne, Jack Grealish, Kyle Walker and Jeremy Doku have innocuous injuries with no timescale on them.
Add to that Savinho and Akanji’s (thankfully minor looking) injuries and it’s looking really bleak.
They can still field an exceptionally strong starting XI with the likes of Erling Haaland, Mateo Kovacic, Bernardo Silva, Ederson, Phil Foden, Ilkay Gundogan and Rico Lewis definitely fit, but it’d leave next to no options on the bench.
Anymore injuries will spark full on crisis mode but right now, City are just about coping.
Nunes is having a second season revival
Many City players have struggled in their first season at the club, but not many have done so more than Nunes.
The Portuguese international barely got a look in during his first season with Kovacic, De Bruyne, Foden and Bernardo all ahead of him in the pecking order.
Add Gundogan and James McAtee to the mix, and it looked as though his City days were numbered with a move to Atletico Madrid rumoured.
But in Doku and Grealish’s absence particularly Nunes has been enjoying himself, with two goals and three assists in his last three matches on the left hand side.
His pace, strong ball carrying and good control means he makes a more than effective winger who is beginning to get himself more involved with the goals.
In such a serious injury crisis Nunes is making himself an important member of the team and is really improving the long term security of his City future at the same time.
City’s quality is often forgotten
With all the headlines being on the players City have that are unavailable, it might just help to remember which members of the squad are still fit and available.
They have the best striker in the world, last season’s PFA Player of the Season and numerous Ballon d’Or nominees from this season in their ranks, which is more than anything their next few opponents have to offer.
It’s clearly not ideal to have so many injuries all at once, particularly ones set to rule players out for the long term, but the quality of players City still have available means there’s no huge need to panic.
Their ability is often overlooked in situations such as this, and it’d certainly be beneficial for City fans to back the players that are available rather than concentrate only on those who aren’t.