Manchester City travel to the Liberty Stadium to face Swansea City in the 3rd round of the EFL Cup where they will be looking to extend their unbeaten start to the season to 9 games. Pep Guardiola has managed to absolutely transform the body language and the ethos of the team in the short while he has been at Manchester City. Showing greater fluency and understanding with each passing game, the future indeed looks bright for the blue half of Manchester.
We look at 3 battles which will be played out at the Liberty Stadium on Wednesday.
KELECHI IHEANACHO VS MIKE VAN DER HOORN
The Manchester prodigy is expected to be given the nod once again and especially with Sergio Aguero in line to return for the trip to the same stadium in the weekend after serving his suspension, the impressive Iheanacho deserves all the chances on offer. He has stepped in well for Aguero and has scored in all the matches the Argentine was suspended for. He will likely be facing a changed Swansea line-up on Wednesday and will be eager to decorate his run of starts with another goal. The likes of Van der Hoorn have to be alert to the positioning of the young striker and with Kelechi being in such good form, it sets up a nice battle.
NEIL TAYLOR VS LEROY SANE
The Wales left-back has been slowly edged back into the team with Kingsley being utilised regularly now. But Taylor will want to have minutes under his belt and will look to impress the manager with every opportunity that he gets. And in the likelihood that he is selected against City in the EFL Cup, he will be handed the daunting task of dealing with the German winger- Leroy Sane.
The £37m purchase has made a trio of substitute appearances and is in line for his first start for his new club. The attacker is still very young and is touted to be a big thing in the days to come. His exceptional pace is something that will keep Neil Taylor extremely busy throughout the 90 minutes.
ZABALETA/MAFFEO VS MONTERO
Pep Guardiola is expected to give Pablo Zabaleta a run out as his rotational policy for the full-backs continue. But he can also spring a little surprise by selecting Maffeo for the task. One of them is expected to line up on the right side of the defence and hence might have to possibly deal with the fleet-footed Jefferson Montero. Montero, with his pace and trickery, will be more than a handful for whoever is selected at right-back and the potential battles between the pair of them will be exciting to watch.
