2 weeks Ago By Aryan Jolly, Last Word On Sports
This is the predicted lineup for Manchester City’s Premier League game against Aston Villa. The match sees two of the most in-form teams in the league face off in a game which will be crucial in deciding the race for the Champions League places. Despite having a relatively poor record away from home, Unai Emery’s side will be full of confidence heading into Tuesday night as they have won each of their last five league games.
Manchester City Predicted Lineup vs Aston Villa in Premier League Tie How Manchester City Have Lined Up Recently Stefan Ortega Moreno started in goal against Everton after Ederson suffered a recurrence of the groin injury which has been plaguing him all season. The German made a couple of strong saves on Saturday, perhaps meaning that the City medical team will not rush the Brazilian back. Guardiola made one change to the back four that started against Crystal Palace as Rico Lewis was replaced by Matheus Nunes at right-back to reunite the defence that has consistently played since the international break.
The rest of that defensive unit was made up of Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol in the centre of defence and Nico O’Reilly, who made yet another vital contribution from left-back against the Toffees. Nico Gonzalez and Ilkay Gundogan, who is in the midst of his best run of form since returning to Manchester in the summer, made up City’s central midfield pairing. Kevin de Bruyne played in a more advanced attacking midfield role with Brazilian starlet Savinho on the left wing and the experienced Bernardo Silva on the right.
As has been the case since Erling Haaland’s injury, Omar Marmoush led the line for the Citizens. Manchester City’s Recent Form and Tactics Although the first 52 minutes against Everton were quite poor, City’s killer instinct kicked in after James Tarkowski came off with an injury. The Sky Blues targeted his replacement, Michael Keane, and were able to create more than enough chances to win the game by a two-goal margin.
The win at Goodison Park means that the only time Guardiola’s side have dropped points since the March international break was in the Manchester Derby. They are one of just four teams in the Premier League to be unbeaten in their last five games. They have kept three clean sheets in that period and only one side has conceded fewer goals during that time, the Villans.
Despite this marked defensive improvement in recent weeks, Guardiola has still been tentative about playing too many of his more explosive and erratic players at once. The likes of Kovacic, Gonzalez, Silva and Gundogan have been rotated so that at least three of them are in the starting lineup more often than not. This has meant that game time for the likes of Jeremy Doku and Savinho has been more limited.
Manchester City Injuries to Consider There have been no major injury updates from Guardiola in his pre-match news conference. Phil Foden and Manuel Akanji both returned to the matchday squad against Everton, and the Swiss defender came on to play the final two minutes and injury time, his first appearance in over two months. It will be interesting to see if either Foden or Akanji are ready to play from the start on Tuesday.
Oscar Bobb, who has missed almost the entire season due to injury, was absent from the squad on Saturday. But, there has been no indication that this was injury-related. Ederson, John Stones, Nathan Ake, Haaland and Rodri all remain unavailable, though there is hope that the entire quintet will return next month.
Manchester City Predicted Lineup GK: Stefan Ortega Moreno RB: Matheus Nunes CB: Ruben Dias CB: Josko Gvardiol LB: Nico O’Reilly DM: Nico Gonzalez CM: Kevin De Bruyne CM: Matteo Kovacic RW: Bernardo Silva LW: Jeremy Doku ST: Omar Marmoush This article first appeared on Last Word On Sports and was syndicated with permission..
