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#4 Man City overcome key absences
City came into this match without John Stones or David Silva who have been instrumental in their success. Stones offers the ability to break the opposition lines from deep positions with his passing. This enables the team to play through the press or break down deep defences depending on how the opposition set up.
None of the other centre-backs offers the same kind of vision, but Nicolás Otamendi acted as a capable backup in this match. There were multiple times when he found Sergio Aguero or an attacking midfielder with a ground pass from deep.
The main difference for this match was the absence of Silva because Stones had been absent for a few matches prior to this so City have been able to adjust for that. ?lkay Gündo?an came in for the creative Spaniard. This didn't affect their build-up play and actually allowed them to be stronger in the midfield area because of Gündo?an's defensive positional intelligence and tackling ability. De Bruyne took on more creative responsibility in his absence and thrived at it as he unpicked Tottenham's defence multiple times.
