Manchester City get ready to welcome Everton to the Etihad Stadium as the Sky Blues look to get back to winning ways after a minor hiccup in recent weeks. City were cruising along and were on a 10-match unbeaten streak before a spirited and vociferous Celtic Park condemned them to their first draw of the season. Things were suddenly not as sunny and rosy as some similar tactics coupled with better players at Mauricio Pochettino’s disposal meant that Spurs were able to comprehensively beat City 2-0 with a missed Erik Lamela penalty saving them further embarrassment.
Everton, on the other hand, will certainly look to get fast and aggressive and look to deny any sort of space to the City midfield and attackers. Which in turn will make their Plan A redundant and force them to move to Plan B, which City have not shown till now. Everton are in the 5th spot and will look to get their biggest 3 points of the season so far although given the venue, they might also settle for a draw.
But it is too early to talk about the result with various issues still to be sorted by the two camps.
Pep Guardiola has been put under the scanner with a lot more conviction for the first time since arriving in England and a win will probably put the judgmental glares away for a while.
T4O’S PREDICTED MANCHESTER CITY LINE-UP VS EVERTON (4-1-4-1)
DEFENCE
Claudio Bravo will continue in his sweeper-keeper role between the sticks. Bravo and the man he replaced Joe Hart, have had contrasting international breaks after the England international bagged a MOTM award after a brilliant performance last night. Sagna is out injured which means Zabaleta will be at right-back while John Stones and Otamendi will form the centre-back pairing. Gael Clichy or Aleksander Kolarov will be at left-back with the former Arsenal man looking likely.
MIDFIELD
Fernandinho will take up his usual place in front of the defence and will look to get over a couple of disappointing performances. With Kevin De Bruyne unlikely to be fit, David Silva and Ilkay Gundogan will line up in the advanced midfield areas, which is supposedly called the N0.8.
ATTACK
Nolito will be raring to go after having served a ban. He will be on the left-hand flank and his goal threat will be welcome. Raheem Sterling might not make it to the starting eleven and Leroy Sane or Jesus Navas could line up on the right. Sergio Aguero will look to put a disappointing time with the Argentine national team behind him as he gears up to continue his scoring spree in the league.
