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Pep Guardiola has told Ange Postecoglou and Tottenham his Man City plan after Carabao Cup draw

Pep Guardiola and Ange Postecoglou will meet at the end of October when Tottenham and Man City clash in the Carabao Cup
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


Tottenham fans were no doubt expecting the worst when the draw for the fourth round of the Carabao Cup was made on Wednesday evening. Paired against Man City at home so early in last season's FA Cup, many believed that another tough encounter was just around the corner with the team desperate to end their long wait for a trophy.

It perhaps came as no surprise at all then that Ange Postecoglou's side were once again drawn to face the reigning Premier League champions in round four. Tottenham will have home advantage, as was the case back in January, with the tie in the calendar for week commencing Monday, October 28.

Very much a nightmare draw for Tottenham with Postecoglou intent on bringing silverware to N17 and carrying on his impressive record of winning trophies in his second season with a club, Spurs look like they are going to have to do it the hard way if they are to go all the way. As much as people would rather not face Pep Guardiola's team, Spurs at some stage are going to have to beat the Premier League's best if they are to lift the Carabao Cup at Wembley in the middle of March.

What could play into Tottenham's hands in next month's fourth round tie is that Guardiola has already made his stance for the competition clear following City's 2-1 win over Watford on Tuesday evening. Tending to heavily rotate his team in the Carabao Cup anyway and give an opportunity to the club's youngsters and those on the periphery of the team, the Spaniard stated in his post-match press conference that City are "not going to waste energy on this competition for sure".

Already facing a packed schedule even before you take into consideration that they had to play their Carabao Cup tie with Watford just 49 hours after their draw with Arsenal, Guardiola has revealed that he will be using the competition to rest his senior players.

"The next round, I announce you now: I will play the players who play the less minutes or play the second team," he declared, as reported by Manchester Evening News. "We are not going to waste energy on this competition for sure.

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"I don't know what will happen, if we have a lot of injuries we play the second team. If we have all the squad ready it's a good competition to play the rhythm."

He added: "The schedule is the schedule, we cannot handle it anyway differently. Today for [James] McAtee, Matheus [Nunes], Jack [Grealish] who didn't play [vs Arsenal]. For Phil [Foden] who didn't play two or three months. Nico [O'Reilly], Rico [Lewis] played a lot of minutes but didn't play minutes vs Arsenal, John [Stones], for the young lad [Kaden Braithwaite], 16 years old, for Stefan [Ortega] it's perfect.

"I saw players who didn't play lately how they feel, how they are physically, the rhythm. That's why it's good the competition, otherwise we wouldn't win four [Carabao Cups] in a row if we didn't take it seriously. Last season at Newcastle we played really good [in the third round defeat].

"We play, everybody saw it, to go through, we never throw a competition game. Never. But of course we play 50 hours ago, players play a lot of minutes, absolutely I am not going to play a risk in this competition with the Premier League and Champions League."

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