Pep Guardiola has made 9 modifications from the beginning XI that took on Leverkusen in midweek.
Returning are Gianluigi Donnarumma, Matheus Nunes, Josko Gvardiol, Ruben Dias, Nico O’Reilly, Bernardo, Phil Foden, Jeremy Doku and Erling Haaland.
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Solely Nico and Tijjani Reijnders retain their beginning berths in opposition to Leeds United, with everybody bar Oscar Bobb dropping all the way down to the bench.
Line-ups
CITY: Donnarumma, Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly, Nico, Bernardo (C), Reijnders, Foden, Doku, Haaland
Subs:: Trafford, Stones, Ake, Marmoush, Cherki, Ait-Nouri, Savinho, Khusanov, Lewis
LEEDS UNITED: Perri, Bogle, Justin, Rodon, Struijk, Ampadu, Tanaka, Gruev, James, Gnonto, Nmecha
Subs: Meslier, Byram, Gudmundsson, Bijol, Harrison, Aaronson, Okafor, Calvert-Lewin, Piroe
Formation
It seems fairly easy on paper.
Donnarumma in objective, with Nunes and O’Reilly as full-backs.
Dias and Gvardiol in central defence, with Nico because the anchor midfielder simply in entrance of the again 4.
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Attacking midfielders Reijnders and Bernardo can have Doku on the left wing and Foden on the suitable as their shops, with, in fact, Haaland our No.9.
CITY LOOK TO RESPOND
Two successive losses has considerably taken the wind out of our sails.
A slender loss away to Newcastle, adopted by a disappointing midweek defeat to Bayer Leverkusen suggests the worldwide break couldn’t have been timed any worse.
The Blues signed off with a powerful win over Liverpool, however the momentum we’d constructed going into the break dissipated on the return to membership soccer.
Now, we’ve three video games within the subsequent eight days, beginning with Leeds United in the present day, Fulham on Tuesday and Sunderland subsequent Saturday.
All three opponents might be a problem, however they’re additionally video games that an on-song Metropolis can win.
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If we will take 9 factors from these upcoming matches, all people goes to really feel a complete higher going right into a busy festive interval.
Can Erling make historical past?
With 99 Premier League targets to this point, Erling Haaland is only one shy of turning into the quickest participant to succeed in a century of prime flight strikes.
If he does rating in the present day, he can have reached the milestone in simply 110 Premier League video games – nothing wanting unimaginable.
He already has 143 targets in 163 matches general for the Blues and is racing up the Membership’s all-time prime 10 scorers chart.
How becoming if he may attain 100 in opposition to Leeds United, the staff his father Alfie spent three seasons with simply earlier than Erling was born.
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Fingers crossed for a striker who we’re extremely fortunate to get to observe on a weekly foundation.
Metropolis have received their final 4 Premier League video games in opposition to Leeds, scoring 16 targets within the course of. It’s as many victories as that they had of their first 16 in opposition to the Whites within the competitors (D5 L7).
Leeds have misplaced their final two away league video games in opposition to Metropolis, happening 7-0 in 2021 and 2-1 in 2023. They final misplaced extra consecutively on the Residents between 1963 and 1968 (4).
Metropolis have received 23 of their final 25 Premier League video games in opposition to promoted sides (D2), with their final such defeat coming at house to Leeds in April 2021.
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Since shedding their first house league recreation of the season in opposition to Spurs, Metropolis have now received every of their final 5 on the Etihad by an mixture rating of 16-2. They’re trying to win six consecutive house league video games by no less than 2+ targets for the primary time since a run of eight between January-Could 2023.
Leeds have misplaced 5 of their final six Premier League video games (W1), together with the final three in a row. They’ve scored first of their final two matches, however have by no means misplaced three in a row having opened the scoring every time.
Leeds have conceded no less than as soon as in every of their final 9 Premier League video games, having stored a clear sheet in two of their opening three matches this season.
Every of Leeds’ final 4 Premier League targets have been scored within the opening quarter-hour of video games – they’ve netted extra targets on this timeframe than some other facet this season (4).
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Leeds supervisor Daniel Farke beat Metropolis within the Premier League with Norwich again in September 2019. The one supervisor to beat the Residents with two completely different promoted golf equipment is Bryan Robson (Middlesbrough in 1995-96 and West Bromwich Albion in 2004-05).
Erling Haaland’s subsequent objective for Metropolis might be his a centesimal within the Premier League. He’s scored in every of his final 5 league video games on the Etihad Stadium, solely having an extended run between August-November 2022 (6).
All three of Lukas Nmecha’s Premier League targets have put Leeds United 1-0 up within the match. The one Leeds participant whose first 4 targets within the competitors had been the opening objective of a recreation was David Wetherall between 1993 and 1994.