Everything you need to know ahead of the Premier League clash at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday
Pep Guardiola will have close to a strong squad available for Manchester City’s game against Chelsea, meaning his line-up could be incredibly difficult to predict.
After the experiment against Arsenal last weekend and the use of Aymeric Laporte at left-back at Everton there could be further tinkering to be done, especially with Kevin De Bruyne likely to come back into the side.
De Bruyne missed out in midweek but that was a fitness/rotation issue rather than injury.
Benjamin Mendy, however, has not featured in the last three Premier League games despite playing 27 minutes in the Carabao Cup on January 23.
Vincent Kompany is still out, as is Claudio Bravo.
Neither side have any suspensions.
This one could be anything. Perhaps Guardiola will use Fernandinho as a centre-back/midfielder again or perhaps that was uniquely applicable to Arsenal.
Bernardo Silva seems to start every game at the moment and there is likely to be space for him again, while De Bruyne is also a good bet to play.
Guardiola only picked one of Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane alongside Sergio Aguero in the past two games, but could use more of a traditional front three with two wingers on Sunday. That could also see Gabriel Jesus come in for Aguero.
Chelsea have no major injuries to contend with and Guardiola is expecting a very challenging game.
The Catalan is a big admirer of Maurizio Sarri and the fact the Italian has a clear week to prepare his side for the trip to the Etihad Stadium has not gone unnoticed.
“We started well with Arsenal and Everton but now comes a really, really big test – a big bull,” Guardiola said on Wednesday. “Chelsea is an exceptional team with seven days to prepare that game. We will try. We have to prepare well.
“This is a real final for us this weekend. If we are able to take these points, we are going to take a huge step forward.”
Kick off is 16:00 GMT (11 ET) on Sunday, and will be shown on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom. It will be shown on NBC in the United States, and on various channels around the world.
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