Haaland set to miss City’s Brighton trip

Title-chasing Manchester City will be without leading scorer Erling Haaland for tonight’s Premier League clash with Brighton.

Haaland missed the FA Cup semi-final win over Chelsea on Saturday with a muscle issue and has now been ruled out of his side’s trip to the Amex Stadium.

Manager Pep Guardiola insisted the matter was not a serious one for the 20-goal striker, who could come back into contention for Sunday’s clash with Nottingham Forest, and was boosted by Phil Foden and John Stones both getting the green light after their own fitness concerns.

“Erling is not ready for tomorrow, the other two – they are ready,” he said. “I’m not concerned. I know it is not a big issue, but he is not allowed for this game.”

The defending champions are four points behind leaders Arsenal with two games in hand.

The run-in is effectively in City’s hands and Guardiola insists neither he nor his team will be taking their eye off the ball, raising an eyebrow at the suggestion he could use the midweek fixture as a chance to rotate first-choice players.

“I don’t know what ‘rotate’ means. Every player deserves to play,” he said.

“Every person has their (preferred) starting XI, but everyone has their contribution. Now we’ve had three or four days since the last game against Chelsea and tomorrow is one of the toughest games of the season.”