Kevin De Bruyne Man City
Kevin De Bruyne Man City

Man City are maintaining the pressure on Arsenal and given their experience in bagging trophies, there’s a very good chance they will be able to overtake the Gunners within the remaining matches.

Manchester City are currently eight points behind the league leaders but they have played one game less which means the gap is effectively five points. This weekend, the Cityzens welcome Liverpool and this one’s a must-win for the home side.

Man City cannot afford to drop any more points from now until the end of the season but Liverpool are a team which has been the scourge of Pep Guardiola’s side in recent seasons. Liverpool are not in the best of forms this campaign but they still have what it takes to puncture Manchester City’s title challenge.

Both these have been very evenly matched over the last couple of years but this time around, Man City are actually the favourites to win on Saturday. The home side are in great form as they have scored 19 goals in their previous five matches and they have not conceded even a single one.

This one’s for the Cityzens to loose.

Manchester City’s team news and injuries:

Going into this key game against Liverpool, Pep Guardiola has only two injury concerns but both of them are impact players.

Phil Foden is the first one missing because the winger has undergone an operation for appendicitis which rules him out of Saturday’s game. Foden’s miss won’t be a big issue for the Man City boss because Jack Grealish is more than an ideal replacement down that left flank.

The other player who is going to be absent this weekend is Erling Haaland who has picked up a groin injury. The forward withdrew from international duty and during the break, he headed to Barcelona to get further scans done.

“Manchester City has a partnership with a hospital in Barcelona so he has been there for further checks and treatment,” Haaland’s dad told Norway’s TV2(h/t Liverpool Echo).

“Now he has been here [Marbella] for a couple of days with the physio from the club. Firstly, I’m not a doctor and secondly, I think it’s ‘touch and go’, yes. You can’t just go two weeks without training and then jump right into a fight. There must be a progression there.

“They can gamble on it, but if he doesn’t get proper training with the team, then he won’t play. It is about how he responds to treatment in the next few days. He needs a lot of care and ‘knuckling’. There are many sprints and there is a lot to move.”

The 22-year-old has been in peak form for Man City this season, scoring 28 goals in 26 league matches but there’s a very slim chance that he is going to be available for selection.

Last year, Pep Guardiola almost played the whole season with a false nine but this time, he has Julián Álvarez in his squad and if Haaland is not ready then the Argentine is going to play through the middle.

Apart from this one major change, we don’t think the Man City boss is going to make too many tweaks to his usual starting line up.

After Joao Cancelo’s departure, Nathan Ake is occupying the left-back position and he will get a start this weekend as well.

Man City predicted line up vs Liverpool:

Predicted Starting XI(4-2-3-1): Ederson; Akanji, Dias, Nathan Ake, Walker; Rodri, Gundogan; Grealish, De Bruyne, Mahrez; Alvarez.

Man City predicted line up vs Liverpool - Premier League 22/23