Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs says Manchester City's squad is over the hill.
Writing in the Telegraph, Giggs says that City manager Pep Guardiola started the season with an ageing squad.
“When you have played in the Premier League for a long time, you get a feeling for the stage in life that a collective of players is at – who is peaking, who is declining, who is on the up – and I got a strong sense that City's squad were too old.
“The statistics tell us that their first XIs this season average 28 years and 299 days – only three clubs come out older in that category: Stoke, West Bromwich Albion and Watford, who at 29 years and 326 days are the oldest.
“To put that in perspective, Tottenham Hotspur, City's opponents today, are the youngest – their first XIs this season average 25 years and 266 days.
“City still have some fine players, and some of those fine players are their older players, but the number who you would put in that older category is always going to have a cumulative effect on the performance of the team.
“David Silva, Yaya Touré, Vincent Kompany, Bacary Sagna, Pablo Zabaleta and Aleksandar Kolarov are all coming towards the end of their careers. You can make a case for them all individually, but together the picture changes."