Villas-Boas handed injury boost ahead of City clash

Villas-Boas' men go into the game at the Etihad Stadium on the back of a 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United prior to the international break.

Tottenham sit seventh in the Premier League following that disappointing result, but are still only one point outside the top four.

And the Portuguese confirmed that his side have been boosted by the return of a number of key players from injury, with defender Danny Rose and attacking midfielder Christian Eriksen their only absentees.

"Danny Rose is still out but making good progress on his injury so we’re looking for a two or three-week period now finally for his return," Villas-Boas said.

"Eriksen is obviously out, hopefully only for four weeks, due to his injury for Denmark. The rest of the team is back in training – (Vlad) Chiriches, (Nacer) Chadli, Etienne (Capoue) and now Zeki Fryers. All of the team is in contention to be selected for the game.

"Everyone is working extremely well so tomorrow we will make the selection, but we had a good week – long for the people who stayed, short for the ones that came back from international duty. We just want to recover as soon as possible."

Tottenham have scored only nine times in the Premier League this season, and Villas-Boas hinted that a return for former Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor, who has yet to make an appearance this term, could be in the offing.

"Our likely approach is to go with one up front (at City)," he added.

"They (strikers Roberto Soldado, Adebayor and Jermain Defoe) are very near each other at the moment and it could be a possibility that even Ade could play that game.

"These are all decisions that we have to take. We don't have enough reasons at the moment not to trust Soldado and Defoe because they've been excellent.

"Hopefully it's a decision that's best for the team and best for the strategy."