Wembley pitch left in dire state for Tottenham vs Manchester City

Tottenham's continued homeless state leaves them squeezing in a 'home' Premier League match against Manchester City, just two days before the Carabao Cup tie against West Ham, and only 24 hours after an NFL game that tore up the pitch at Wembley Stadium.

The Philadelphia Eagles ran out 24-18 winners against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday and the surface suffered terribly.

It is in a bit of a state ahead of the game on Monday night, which will see two of England's best passing teams attempting to stick to their natural game and keep the ball on a far from perfect pitch.

That will be tough given this was the how the Wembley pitch looked just a few days ago, before any American football had taken place on it: 

Then, a couple of hours of Sunday's NFL encounter dug up a large amount of the remaining grass, leaving the pitch looking something like this:

The centre of the Wembley pitch looked like it had been hit hardest, but removing all the paint around the edge of the pitch has also meant the flanks have been affected, too.

Wembley's deal with the NFL meant that the Tottenham game could not be played over the weekend (there would not have been enough time to set the pitch up for an NFL game if football had been played there Saturday), while Manchester City's refusal to swap the game to the Etihad Stadium and the upcoming Carabao Cup games all meant there was no other time Monday's match could be played.

The cold weather and a relentless schedule at Wembley - that has seen the pitch damaged by rugby league and boxing matches as well as football - in recent months means the playing surface at Tottenham's temporary home is more Sunday league than Premier League at present.

Staff at Wembley began work on restoring the pitch straight after the NFL game had finished, but even the most experienced groundspeople would struggle to sort the surface out in just a single day.

It is worth remembering that only 15 years ago Chelsea were preparing to play Charlton on this Stamford Bridge pitch.

That's not to say Mauricio Pochettino and Pep Guardiola should be satisfied with the pitch at Wembley on Monday night, but they have many of the best players in the world, and they should be able to deal with such circumstances.