Manchester City will clash heads with Leicester City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday evening looking to keep the pressure on Liverpool in the Premier League standings with a win at home. Despite their injury crisis, the Mancunian outfit has been in fine form of late as they secured back to back victories over Wolverhampton Wanderers and Bournemouth respectively. However, it won’t be an easy test for them as the Foxes are yet to drop points in the league this season.
Talking Tactics
Pep Guardiola will probably opt for a 4-2-3-1 formation as he unleashes Kevin De Bruyne in behind Raheem Sterling, who will lead the line for Man City this weekend. The Spanish manager will ask his players to dominate the ball and orchestrate some clear-cut chances to score in the decisive end of the pitch.
Brendan Rodgers is expected to stick with his favoured 4-1-4-1 formation as he instructs his men to defend in numbers and hit the home side using the pace of Jamie Vardy on the counter.
Team News
Manchester City
Guardiola has a whole host of injury problems with Gabriel Jesus, Aymeric Laporte, Nicolas Otamendi and Oleksandr Zinchenko all set to miss out on Sunday.
Manchester City Predicted XI
Ederson, Walker, Stones, Ake, Mendy, Rodri, Fernandinho, Mahrez, De Bruyne, Foden, Sterling
Leicester City
Ricardo Pereira, Filip Benković and Wilfred Ndidi remain long-term casualties. Demarai Gray is unlikely to recover in time for this clash away at the north-west of England.
Leicester City Predicted XI
Schmeichel, Castagne, Evans, Soyuncu, Justin, Mendy, Perez, Tielemans, Praet, Barnes, Vardy
Key Men
Manchester City
Raheem Sterling will assume the role of a makeshift centre-forward in the absence of Gabriel Jesus who is sidelined because of injury. The English attacker will have to be more unforgiving in the final third if Man City are to outscore the Foxes at their own backyard. We can expect Kevin De Bruyne to pull strings from midfield while Kyle Walker will get the responsibility to keep Sadio Mane quiet throughout the 90 minutes.
Leicester City
Jamie Vardy will once again be Rodgers’ best hope for a goal up top. Both Jonny Evans and Caglar Soyuncu will need to produce a solid collective display at the back if they are to keep the Mancunian giants at bay this weekend.
Odds
Man City are 2/7 favourites to secure maximum points on Sunday. The Foxes have been priced at 17/2 to pull off a win at the Etihad Stadium while a draw has been listed at 19/4.
