The big talking point going into the massive Monday night football match involving Tottenham and Manchester City was the state of the Wembley pitch.
The (usually) hallowed turf of Wembley Stadium was looking far from ideal for a Premier League match as it resembled a potato field after hosting an NFL match involving Philadelphia Eagles and Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
It seems likely that the state of the playing surface had a big influence on the Spurs and City managers as Mauricio Pochettino opted to leave Christian Eriksen out of his Tottenham starting line-up on Monday evening, while Pep Guardiola didn't want to risk Kevin De Bruyne - who recently returned to fitness from a knee injury - from the start.
Here's the best of the reaction from Twitter...
You have to wonder if the state of the pitch has informed Pep's decision to put @DeBruyneKev on bench. #MCFC [@StuBrennanMEN]
If Tottenham didn’t want to play on a chewed up pitch maybe they should have sorted their own ground out in time! #TOTMCI [@EuropeanJaguar]
Spurs should be held accountable for the fact they failed to get their new stadium ready on time There’s no way any PL game should be played on this terrible surface! It’s a joke how they’ve been able to play at Wembley this long anyway [@gav1nclarke]
The pitch at Wembley doesn't look great, but had Spurs pulled their finger out they would be playing at the new stadium now so it's on them IMO. NFL had the stadium booked a long time ago. [@ferretimp]
Love how we have to play on a field destroyed by the NFL in a hugely important game. I know we weren’t expecting to still be at Wembley, but couldn’t we have scheduled Saturday games on NFL England weeks as a precaution? NFL doesn’t need a pristine pitch like we do. This sucks. [@saclawson]
Those American Fakeball markings on tonight's Wembley pitch are an absolute disgrace to the beautiful game. [@boabts]
Part of the reason why pochettino hasn't selected Eriksen and Alli is the condition of the pitch.. The silkiness of them two isn't required in a wobbly ground.. Spurs may play direct football and Sissoko could be useful... [@mizgans]
#TOTMCI head says 4-1 city, heart says 3-1 city...pitch says 0-0 shocking game [@tosty505]
Looking at the pitch - can't wait to see @HKane play QB for the Tottenham Spurs tonight. Hopefully a big win against Manchester Blues. [@sticklandtim]
#TOTMCI
