Pep Guardiola's most feared fixture will come at the worst time for Man City treble defence

"If Manchester City win the treble, what is your next target?"

That was the fairly standard question for Pep Guardiola last month, before City went on to secure the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League trophies to make history. Guardiola was clearly in a good mood, as he smiled and jokingly replied: "To score a goal at Tottenham away."

The joke masks an ongoing run of poor performances at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where City have lost every time they have visited, with away fans yet to celebrate a goal.

When City next travel to Spurs in the Premier League, they may do so knowing they must win to win the Premier League. The fixture computer couldn't have placed that particular game at a more inconvenient time for Guardiola.

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For a start, Guardiola has earmarked the third weekend in April as a problematic one for some time. Coming just after the Champions League quarter-final second leg, that weekend often sees City get back to domestic action in the FA Cup semi-finals. Until this year, when they faced Sheffield United of the Championship, they had fallen short and failed to keep up momentum, for three years straight.

Guardiola was aware that the mental and physical exertions of the Champions League quarter-finals had a knock-on effect in the next game, so was delighted when City ended that particular hoodoo this season.

In 2023/24, when City will be aiming to arrive in April still in all three competitions, maybe that mysterious fixture computer was listening to Guardiola by placing Tottenham vs Manchester City on April 20.

Assuming that City are still in Europe at that point, they will either face Spurs away in the league that