FIT-AGAIN AGUERO IN LINE TO FACE FOXES
Aguero in contention to start in today’s vital Foxes clash at Etihad
DAVID Silva is likely to miss City’s game with Leicester City – but John Stones and Sergio Aguero are back in contention.
Aguero has been absent since the November win over Chelsea while Stones and Silva both picked up injuries in the derby defeat. Aguero was back in training earlier this week as he looks to take the burden off Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling up front.
Stones has also had two sessions with the squad as he aims to get his season started. The England international has been struck down by a number of problems that have disrupted his campaign. He stands a chance of returning to the defence against Leicester, although Fernandinho and Nicolas Otamendi are also available. The game will come too soon for Silva though, who has still not recovered from the kick he took against United.
CITY have yet another must-win game today and this time it comes against the team who sit directly above them in the table, Leicester City.
Retaining their Premier League crown is already an extremely difficult task but City can make a dent in the 14-point gap with a win – as Liverpool don’t play this weekend being in Qatar for the Club World Cup.
The Blues can’t move from third place before Christmas but a victory would also put them within a point of Leicester in second place, though a defeat could cost them dear. Pep Guardiola will go into the game without his assistant manager Mikel Arteta, who has taken over as the new manager of Arsenal, but it will hopefully not impact him too much for the important clash.
While the Foxes have had an exceptional start to the season they did drop points to Norwich last week and threw away a twogoal lead against Everton in the Carabao Cup on Friday – while still advancing to the semis on penalties – so perhaps they are losing momentum at the perfect time for City.
Ederson will return in goal after being rested for Wednesday’s
Carabao Cup victory over Oxford United and it will likely be a completely different back four as well.
Eric Garcia and Taylor Harwood-Bellis impressed once again but they will probably make way for Fernandinho and Nicolas Otamendi in the heart of defence.
John Stones returned to training this week but it feels unwise to throw him straight back in to the fray when he would be facing an on-fire Jamie Vardy.
Kyle Walker and Benjamin Mendy will also likely come in for Joao Cancelo and Aleks Zinchenko.
Rodri will probably keep his place in midfield and he could be joined with Ilkay Gundogan to try and combat Leicester’s creative duo of James Maddison and Youri Tielemans.
Kevin De Bruyne will come back into the fold after being rested on Wednesday and will hopefully pull some more magic out of the hat following his goals against Arsenal.
Bernardo Silva could also remain in the side but pushed up into the attack with Raheem Sterling, who will go back out wide rather than the central role he played at the Kassam Stadium.
Sergio Aguero was also back in training this week and while his importance is well known, it may again be risky to throw him straight back into the first team.
Gabriel Jesus has performed well in his absence and deserves to keep his place, at least for now.