Manchester City look to snap four-game skid in tricky fixture versus Tottenham

The international break came at an opportune time for Manchester City given they've lost four straight games across all competitions -- the longest losing streak of Pep Guardiola's managerial career.

While the aforementioned Pep is no doubt hoping the break cleared the minds of some of his players, the opponent in front of them is perhaps not one he wants to be facing at this moment.

City's first opponent off the break is Tottenham. A Tottenham side that no matter where they are in the standings, always seem to give City problems. It was only around three weeks ago that Spurs knocked City out of the EFL Cup.

Since then, however, Spurs have lost two out of their last three matches. Suffice to say neither side is entering the match in a good run of form.

In good news for City and Guardiola is they should have some of their injured players back in time for the match. During his pre-match press conference, Guardiola provided updates on some of those players.

"“Some of them [could be available], yes,” Guardiola said. “John [Stones] trained good, Manu [Akanji] trained good. Nathan [Ake] is coming back to training, so we didn’t have any center-backs and now we have three."

The news was less good on Mateu Kovacic who could be out between three to four weeks. A blow considering Kovacic was covering for Rodri, City's most important player, who is out with an ACL injury.

Five points behind Liverpool in the league table, City cannot afford to drop too many more points. Despite the losing streak, Guardiola is taking things in stride.

"Four defeats? Listen when you are eight or nine years as a manager in one club, you live all the scenarios and all the situations," he said. "You are able to lose four games in a row and at the same time you are able to win four Premier League games in a row.

"The difference is that most of the time, most teams are able to lose four games in three different competitions but only one team won four Premier Leagues in a row. It's happened. In one season in eight or niine years, both sides of the coin will happen."

Regardless, the match against Tottenham is an important won and City need to improve from what they showed against Brighton, particularly in the second half. In some ways, it's a must win game for City considering their next opponent in the league is none other than Liverpool.