Man City Pep Guardiola Manchester CIty
Pep Guardiola Man City

Man City breezed past Club Brugge in the Champions League in midweek and now they have to quickly shift their focus to the Premier League where they take on Brighton on Saturday.

City go into this game third on the table with just two points behind the league leaders. So a win against the Seagulls should be good enough to keep them in the top-four this matchweek.

Pep Guardiola has an almost fully-fit squad to choose from so he’s expected to rest some of the players who started against Brugge in midweek. He is once again going to play with a false-nine since Ferran Torres is out injured.

Man City have a wonderful record against Brighton in the league but the last time these two sides met was back in May and in that match, the Seagulls came from 2-0 down to win 3-2. Also, this season, Brighton have been on a roll and going into this match, they find themselves are sitting fourth on the table.

Manchester City team news vs Brighton:

Laporte and Ruben Dias started in central defence in midweek but there’s a big chance that Pep Guardiola calls in John Stones for the Brighton game, in place of Aymeric Laporte.

The full-back roles though are not expected to see any changes with Walker on the right and Joao Cancelo on the left-hand side.

Rodri recently received heavy praise from his manager so he’s more or less locked into the defensive midfielder’s position. Barring an injury, we do not see Fernandinho come into the starting line up.

 

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Kevin De Bruyne will obviously hold onto his place in the middle of the pitch but Bernardo Silva is expected to make way for Gundogan who only made a substitute appearance against Brugge.

Gabriel Jesus remained an unused sub in midweek but if the Man City opts for rotation then the Brazilian should replace Riyad Mahrez on the right flank. Mahrez though was the star of the show in the 5-1 win, scoring two goals.

Phil Foden played as the false nine in the UCL game but against Brighton, we should see a return of Raheem Sterling into the starting line up while Jack Grealish holds onto his position down the left flank.

Man City predicted line up vs Brighton:

Predicted starting line up: Ederson; Walker, Joao Cancelo, John Stones/Laporte, Ruben Dias; Rodri, De Bruyne, Gundogan; Jack Grealish, Sterling, Mahrez/Jesus.

Man City predicted line up vs Brighton

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