Most of the attention around the Manchester City team for Swindon will revolve around which youngsters could feature.
That is only natural, since a cup game against lower league opposition is a prime opportunity for some of the promising academy players to show Pep Guardiola what they can contribute to the team. Supporters making the long journey down will be excited by any fresh talents - especially if they are homegrown - that they do not normally get to see play.
However, realistically the team is going to be mostly made up of senior players. City's manager may have started five teenagers in the Carabao Cup game against Wycombe but admitted afterwards that it was not the best way to develop youngsters and a necessity brought about by an injury crisis in the rest of his squad.
Against Championship side Birmingham in the third round of the FA Cup last year, he started no academy players; in the fourth round against League Two's Cheltenham, he started two - Tommy Doyle and Taylor Harwood-Bellis - and took both of them off when the result was in jeopardy; against Championship side Swansea in the fifth round, he started none.
The situation is slightly different this season in that rather than having a game every three days, City have had a week since the Arsenal match and have another week before they face Chelsea. Some players will be rested but for others that gap will be too long to go without having any minutes in the legs and they will likely need to feature for at least some of the match with Swindon to maintain or improve their condition.
Kyle Walker is an obvious place to start. He has not been on a pitch since he was given his marching orders at RB Leipzig a month ago, missing four matchday squads after getting Covid before returning to the bench at Arsenal. As good as Joao Cancelo has been, City can't afford to completely rely on him for every game.
The one centre-back that needs the minutes the most is John Stones. He came off the bench for the last 20 minutes at Newcastle but has also been absent since. Missing another game would open the door further for Nathan Ake to jump ahead of him in the pecking order of centre-backs but if he is available he must surely start.
Ilkay Gundogan was another who played at Leipzig when he need not have done, with Guardiola insisting afterwards he needed the rhythm after missing a match a week before but then suggesting that his back pain may need another solution. The German has completed 90 minutes just once since and has been named on the bench for four of the last five league games. This looks to be the ideal platform to ease him back into action.
Jack Grealish is still struggling for that breakthrough performance at his new club. A header in the 7-0 win over Leeds was welcomed but he was dropped to the bench after that for celebrating the win too hard with Phil Foden and his only start since - in the 1-0 win at Brentford - brought more questions about where he fits into the team. Starting at Swindon in his favoured position would be the best chance to boost his confidence the former Villa man could get.
With Gabriel Jesus and Aleks Zinchenko also having a case for selection if they are available, there should be plenty of experience in the team to take on Swindon even if few of them are in their best rhythm.
