Manchester City will look to step up another gear in the Premier League when they travel to Brighton this evening.
Pep Guardiola’s star-studded side put Club Brugge to the sword with a five-star showing in the Champions League on Tuesday, while they also chalked up a 2-0 win over Burnley in the top-flight last weekend.
While that latter win ended up being fairly routine thanks to a goal in each half from Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne as City kept up the pace on their title rivals, the defending champions were some way short of their best and it could have been an unexpectedly nervy finish were it not for their Belgian maestro.
City will want to re-assert the sort of domestic dominance for which they have long since become feared, though might find life tough against a Brighton team that are only one place and two points behind them in the table heading into the weekend.
Graham Potter’s side have now drawn three successive matches either side of the international break, keeping successive clean sheets.
Brazilian duo Ederson and Gabriel Jesus are back after missing the win over Burnley following international duty, while Ruben Dias has returned to the Premier League starting XI after John Stones got the nod alongside Aymeric Laporte against Sean Dyche’s men.
Kyle Walker also returns, though there is no Ken De Bruyne.
Guardiola’s front three obviously changes so often, though Raheem Sterling largely failed to take his opportunity against Burnley.
Ferran Torres remains sidelined with the metatarsal injury suffered on international duty with Spain.
Man City Starting XI: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Laporte, Cancelo, Rodrigo, Gundogan (C), Bernardo, Jesus, Foden, Grealish
Subs: Steffen, Stones, Ake, Zinchenko, De Bruyne, Fernandinho, Mahrez, Edozie, Palmer
