Manchester City will be out to find an effective solution to Pep Guardiola’s striker conundrum when they face newly-promoted Norwich today.
The Premier League champions failed to find the net last weekend at Tottenham, falling to a 1-0 defeat - the same scoreline by which they lost the Champions League final and Community Shield to Chelsea and Leicester respectively.
Man City are still rightly among the title favourites this term, but those performances have only served to highlight that Guardiola has a Harry Kane-shaped hole in his attack.
With transfer negotiations between Spurs and City seemingly stalled in that regard, Guardiola must currently plan for life without Kane - and given Sergio Aguero left for Barcelona this summer, there are places up for grabs.
That is not to say he is without options. A strong front three in Gabriel Jesus, Bernardo Silva and Ferran Torres will be confident of bagging a few goals and setting City’s title defence back on track.
Guardiola has received a welcome boost with the return to fitness of midfield general Ilkay Gundogan who has recovered from a shoulder injury.
The City boss has also made changes to his back four. Nathan Ake and Benjamin Mendy - heavily criticised after last week’s reverse - have been relegated to the bench. They’re replaced by Kyle Walker and Aymeric Laporte.
Jack Grealish maintains his starting berth but Raheem Sterling will begin on the bench. So too will Riyad Marhez.
Kevin De Bruyne is not deemed fit enough for even a cameo and misses out the match-day squad entirely.
Man City vs Norwich lineups
Man City XI: Ederson, Joao Cancelo, Laporte, Dias, Walker, Gundogan, Rodri, Grealish, Bernardo Silva, Gabriel Jesus, Torres
Subs: Ake, Sterling, Zinchenko, Steffen, Mendy, Fernandinho, Mahrez, Doyle, Palmer
Norwich XI: Krul, Aarons, Hanley, Gibson, Giannoulis, Lees-Melou, Gilmour, Rupp, Cantwell, Pukki, Rashica
Subs: Dowell, Tzolis, Sorensen, McLean, Sargent, Mumba, Gunn, Idah, Omobamidele
