Nathan Ake has been a revelation for Manchester City this season but the defender is likely to miss the Arsenal game this week.
Ake has been playing as the left-sided centre-back ever since Joao Cancelo was sent out but he picked up a hamstring injury during the 2nd leg vs Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena.
This injury forced him to miss Man City’s win over Sheffield United in the FA Cup semi-final this weekend and as per the latest gossip, the defender is going to be absent in midweek as well.
Speaking before the Sheffield game, Guardiola had told the press: ‘He’s not ready for tomorrow, but I don’t know [the] damage. This morning or this afternoon, they make the final test to know exactly what he has.’
The full extent of the injury is not known yet but according to Sports Scientist Dr Rajpal Brar, even if it is a grade 1 hamstring injury still Nathan Ake is going to take one to two weeks to make a full recovery.
Arsenal’s trip to the Etihad is going to be really crucial in terms of the Premier League title race so the last thing Pep Guardiola will want is to use a less than 100% defender.
The Man City boss has a perfectly able backup in the form of Aymeric Laporte and we think the Spaniard is going to get a start if Nathan Ake is unavailable.
Pep can also shift the positions of his three central defenders by bringing in Kyle Walker on the right-hand side and then using either Dias or Akanji on the left.
These are the two most likely scenarios if Manchester City are without Nathan Ake on Wednesday but there’s also an outside chance that Guardiola reverts to a conventional back line. Ever since Cancelo’s left, the Man City manager has mostly used a 3-2-4-1 formation but it won’t be a major surprise if he sets up a 4-2-3-1 system when the Gunners come to town.
