The visit of Carlo Ancelotti’s continental champions will no doubt be playing on the mind of the Etihad faithful, but Guardiola and co cannot allow themselves to be distracted from their domestic duties as they seek a fifth top-flight away win in succession – one which would temporarily take them four points clear of Arsenal before the Gunners meet Brighton a couple of hours later.
Out of the mere four points that Man City have dropped at home this season, two of them came at against Everton on New Year’s Eve – being held to a 1-1 draw by the Toffees – but the champions boast a five-game winning streak at Goodison Park since being stunned 4-0 in January 2017; Brighton can now empathise with their Manchester counterparts when it comes to such four-goal humiliations.
A near-perfect afternoon for Everton at the Amex also saw Dyche’s side sustain no fresh injury concerns, and they have been handed a slice of good news over Seamus Coleman’s issue, which is not the potentially career-ending ACL problem that was first suggested. Coleman is already confirmed to be missing the rest of the campaign, though, while Andros Townsend (knee), Dele Alli (groin), Ben Godfrey (groin) and Ruben Vinagre (calf) are keeping their skipper company in the treatment room.
While Amadou Onana could potentially threaten James Garner’s place in the engine room, Dyche will surely see no reason to disrupt the harmony of his first XI following Monday’s outstanding performance, and an eighth assist for Alex Iwobi on Sunday would see the ex-Arsenal man set a new Premier League single-season record for Nigerian players.
As for Man City, Guardiola elected not to make a single substitution at the Bernabeu, where all 11 of his starters came through unscathed, but Nathan Ake missed the journey due to the thigh problem that he picked up in the win over Leeds.
It is still unclear how long Ake might be sidelined for, but the Dutchman – who is feeling “much better” according to Guardiola – should not be risked for the trip to Merseyside, where the visitors can be expected to make a plethora of changes with one eye on the Champions League. All of Phil Foden, Riyad Mahrez, Julian Alvarez, Aymeric Laporte and Rico Lewis will be strong contenders to come into the first XI, while fringe players such as Kalvin Phillips and Sergio Gomez could even get a look-in too.
