Manchester City‘s first-team flight heading to London on Friday was forced to divert to an alternative airport due to technical issues ahead of their 5th Premier League and game of the 2020-2021 season.
Pep Guardiola and his men who were on board the plane flew to London to honor their Premier League match against West Ham United scheduled to take place at London Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Based on reliable sources, the plane was scheduled to land at London City’s airport but had to be diverted to London Stansted Airport, an airport 30 miles away from their original landing destination.
The technical fault the plane developed mid-air was that the plane’s anti-skid system collapsed, which means that, the only runway the plane can land safely must be a runway longer than that of London City airport. Hence, the nearest alternative was the airport that is 30 miles away from the City’s airport.
This issue arose because the city’s airport is not a standard airport. It was not because the original landing destination had any safety threat contrary to earlier speculations.
As of the time of publishing this report, all members of Manchester City‘s team were fine as the plane landed safely on the alternative destination. The only downside to the incident was that the players arrived at their hotel behind schedule.
This, will, however, not affect the Premier League match as scheduled. It will take place at exactly 12:30 PM (BST) as originally planned.
Manchester City are currently occupying the 11th spot on the league table. Pep Guardiola and his men have garnered just 7 points in 4 matches after losing a match, drawing one, and winning two so far in the season.
If City win against West Ham United tomorrow, October 24, they have the potential of moving to the third spot on the league table depending on the performance of other clubs on the log.
The city which has been bedeviled with a backlog of injuries especially to some of their star players like Gabriel Jesus, Fernandinho, and Benjamin Mendy, have welcomed back their talisman Kevin De Bruyne who has been out with an injury, and their new signing Aymeric Laporte who just recovered from coronavirus infection.
“Some of them will be [involved],” Pep Guardiola said on Friday. “Some of them, no. You will know tomorrow.”
“The schedule is completely crazy for everyone, especially the teams that play in Europe.
“Right now I don’t know my selection. We play tomorrow at 12.30, so not much recovery. Today the guys trained well and tonight we will decide.”
A look back at our most recent hits away to the Hammers ⚽️🔥⚒
— Manchester City (@ManCity) October 23, 2020
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