Haaland in race to be fit for Spurs clash, says Guardiola

Manchester City are sweating on the fitness of striker Erling Haaland for their Premier League trip to Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday, manager Pep Guardiola said.

Haaland, who has 27 goals this season in all competitions, suffered a knee injury in City's 4-0 victory over Newcastle on 15 February and was not named for Sunday's 2-0 loss at home to Liverpool, which left City fourth on 44 points.

"Tonight we will know after training," Guardiola told reporters on Tuesday of Haaland's prospects of playing against Spurs.

"I hope so, but we don't know yet. He feels better but we will see tomorrow."

City won the league for the last four seasons but have failed to impress in this one, also crashing out of the Champions League with a humbling 6-3 aggregate defeat to Real Madrid.

They spent over $224 million in the January window to sign Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis and Juma Bah, but those players have not yet righted the ship.

Despite their struggles, Guardiola said rebuilding City's squad would not be the biggest challenge of his career, given he had renewed the team several times in the last nine years.

"We have done it two or three times already. It is not the biggest challenge," he said. "The challenge I had is when I was starting my managerial career with my staff. I proved myself and my staff proved we can do it."

The Spanish manager also praised the performances of academy graduate Rico Lewis, who has frequently started at right back for the club since the departure of Kyle Walker to AC Milan.

"Since he arrived in the first team he has been really good. He is not a good defender but he is an exceptional defender. He is so smart and intelligent," Guardiola said.

"His physicality is not like a typical defender in this country but he is really good, especially with the ball."