Manchester City will hope to get their top four ambitions back on track when rivals Brighton visit the Etihad this afternoon.
Pep Guardiola's side lost 1-0 to Nottingham Forest last weekend and slipped to fifth as a result. City are one point and two places better off than the upwardly mobile Seagulls who have pieced together four successive Premier League wins to catapult themselves into Champions League contention.
A win for City, in the final game before the international break, will go a long way towards ensuring the Blues end the campaign in the top five given their run-in and the damage it would inflict on Brighton. Guardiola remains without a number of players through injury, with Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake and John Stones all sidelined while Oscar Bobb is not yet fit enough to feature and Rodri remains sidelined.
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It means the defensive partnership of Ruben Dias and Abdukodir Khusanov will continue with Josko Gvardiol on the left. Rico Lewis could earn a recall at right back while Ederson is likely to continue in goal, despite not covering himself in glory with Forest's winner last time out.
Guardiola has seemingly settled on Jeremy Doku and Savinho to provide the ammunition for Erling Haaland which means Omar Marmoush and Jack Grealish may have to settle for a place on the bench. Nico Gonzalez should get the nod in the middle and at the moment it feels like Phil Foden or Kevin De Bruyne with preference for the former in the No.10 role. Bernardo Silva has not had his best season and Mateo Kovacic could offer a bit more stability and control while allowing Gonzalez the opportunity to play further forward.
The Premier League pauses for a fortnight after the weekend clash, with an international break and the FA Cup quarter finals coming up across the next two gameweeks. It means the result at the Etihad this afternoon will be crucial in the Champions League race given the fortnight without top-flight action that follows. And Guardiola is ready for the battle.
“It’s in our hands, it depends on us," he said. "We don’t have to recover eight or ten points to go there and wait for the opponent to lose many games, it’s just about us and depends on our behaviours and our football if we’re there or not.
“We have to reach the best level to qualify for Europe next season, definitely. We have to be consistent as much as possible.
“We know we have 10 games left, six at home and four away and at home we have tough games like Brighton, Aston Villa, Bournemouth. Most of the games are really, really tough.
“We have to do it better because there are many teams with this target and we miss an important chance last week.”
Predicted City XI: Ederson, Lewis, Dias, Khusanov, Gvardiol; Kovacic, Gonzalez, Foden, Savinho, Doku, Haaland
