How Man City could line up against West Ham

8:00am on Friday 26th February 2021
By Martin Macdonald

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is set to make changes to his team from the line-up that started against Gladbach on Wednesday.

In Champions League duties during the week, Man City successfully defeated the Bundesliga outfit 2-0 away from home in the first leg of the last 16 tie between the pair.

Prior to the game, Guardiola promised that he would give some players a rest for the West Ham fixture this Saturday lunchtime.

At the moment, the former Barcelona and Bayern head coach nearly has a full squad at his disposal, with only Nathan Ake a confirmed absentee for the game against the Hammers.

Ederson will remain in goal, but there might be a few alterations in the defence in front of him.

Oleksandr Zinchenko is pushing for a start and could come in for Kyle Walker, which would see Joao Cancelo move back to his favoured position at right-back. John Stones didn't play against Gladbach so will likely return, though it may be Ruben Dias given a rest on this occasion as opposed to Aymeric Laporte dropping out.

Kevin De Bruyne was only a substitute in the Champions League, too, so he will return, possibly for Ilkay Gundogan.

Sergio Aguero has been slowly regaining fitness since his return from injury and coronavirus isolation and Guardiola will need to throw him in the starting XI at some point. Saturday could be the day he makes his comeback, with Gabriel Jesus dropping out.

Ferran Torres hasn't started a Premier League game since the end of January, so might be given the opportunity to do so this weekend.