Manchester City may rest Yaya Toure vs. Spurs

Tottenham Hotspur may face a significantly weakened Manchester City side on Saturday. That is because Yaya Toure may not play.

Yaya will play for the Ivory Coast on Wednesday, leaving him little time to get back to Manchester and recover before the match against Spurs. He may not be at the City training ground until 24 hours before the match. If that's the case, it's tough to imagine Manuel Pellegrini starting him.

When Yaya had an international in September, Pellegrini did not use him in his first match back with City. He sat on the bench, and that was in a very important match against Arsenal.

On top of the tight travel time because of international duty, City have a huge Champions League match on Tuesday. Asking Yaya to play Wednesday in the Ivory Coast, Saturday in England and then Tuesday in Russia is insane so Pellegrini will have choice to make.

Of course, City are a very good team with plenty of talented players so not having Yaya is hardly a death blow. Instead they will probably use Fernandinho and Frank Lampard in the pivot*, which is still plenty effective with the array of talent City can put in front of them. Still, Yaya is a huge part of what they do and if he's rested, which looks likely to happen, Spurs are better off.

* Assuming Fernandinho is fit, which is still unclear