When he implied that Spurs were a team that belonged to the England captain a few years ago, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola incited outrage. However, Ange Postecoglou’s tenure as manager has not stopped the excitement at White Hart Lane from growing since Kane left for Bayern Munich in the summer. City defender Ake has cautioned that the champions will have a tough test at the Etihad.

An injury crisis and three straight losses have halted Tottenham’s explosive start to the season. Nevertheless, Ake stated: “Clearly Harry Kane was scoring a lot of goals for Spurs – and if you take that away from any side it will be felt.

“But although Kane has gone, they have bought some new players like James Maddison, who are really good. Maddison was playing really well before he was injured – but there are other players who have stepped up and are scoring goals. (Heung-min) Son has stepped up, there is also (Dejan) Kulusevski who has done really well, and (Brennan) Johnson has come in and has done well.

“They have a lot of people who are top players. It was never just about Kane. There is a lot more to Spurs than that. They are playing some really, really good football this season. We know they have had a few injuries, which has made it difficult at times, but even then they are playing great stuff, so will be a tough game. We have to make sure we are ready and fresh.”

Ake knows that City will face a tough task against Tottenham

The consecutive draws against Chelsea and Liverpool have hampered City’s attempt to become the first team to win four Premier League titles in a row. Guardiola’s team, however, overcame a 2-0 deficit to defeat RB Leipzig on Tuesday night and keep their perfect Premier League record.

It also set a record for an English club by extending City’s winning streak in the competition to 18 games. However, Ake believes that the comeback showed that Guardiola’s team’s appetite was not satiated by the record Treble from the previous season.

Pep Guardiola infamously called Tottenham ‘the Harry Kane team

“We know we will never give up,” he said. “Even in the first half, when we know we didn’t play our best game, we still had a lot of chances and things could have been different. We can always create opportunities and score any time. Obviously every one of us wants to win, but I don’t think anyone is looking back to what we did last season. For all of us, last year is last year. No-one has that on their mind.

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“As for other players who have come here, everyone wants to win, everyone wants to beat us, so it isn’t easy. What we have to do is concentrate on keeping our quality as high as we know that means we can win most games.”rie A and many more. You can also watch the biggest clashes in boxing, UFC, WWE and the get exclusive action from MLB all for one payment every month. You can watch TNT Sports through BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media.

The Dutchman also has another box to tick. City head to the Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia later this month – and Ake said: “We are going to fight so hard for that, because the club has never won it.

“I know how the tournament might be viewed by a lot of people from the outside, but as far as we are concerned, we really want to win it. You only get the chance to go for that trophy if you have won the Champions League. Well we have given ourselves that opportunity and we all want to take it. It would be nice to be able to call ourselves world champions