Etihad

  • Venue: Etihad Stadium
  • Date: Sunday, 3rd February
  • K/o: 16.00
  • TV: Live Sky Sports 1

Team News

Manchester City continue to be without captain Vincent Kompany for Sunday’s clash with Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium, but there is some hope for Matija Nastasic (knee), who made the bench at QPR in midweek. Javi Garcia has so far deputised for the centre-half.

Brazilian Maicon has returned to training and could soon return, while Micah Richards (knee) could be back by the end of this month.

Mancini is also without brothers Yaya Touré and Kolo Touré who are still on international duty for the African Cup Of Nations.

New signing Philippe Coutinho will not be in the squad for the City game, as he has briefly returned to Milan after Wednesday’s switch from Inter and will not return until next week. Joe Enrique is likely to start having returned from injury in midweek. Flanagan and Kelly both remain sidelined by knee injuries.

Match Preview

Brendan Rodgers might find his position a little more questioned than it has been to date, after the humiliation against Oldham in the FA Cup last week, plus the surrender of two points against Arsenal a few days later. They face the difficult prospect of a Man City team looking to push themselves on, as well as the daunting stats that they haven’t beaten a top ten side so far this season, and came away from the Etihad the last two times with 3-0 defeats.

A draw is likely to help neither team in their respective quests for points, with City in particular in dire need of the maximum to close the ten point gap that has appeared at the top of the table. Hopefully that means attack, attack.

Likely Line-Ups

Man City

Hart; Zabaleta, Lescott, Nastasic, Clichy; Garcia, Barry; Nasri, Tévez, Silva; Agüero.

Liverpool

Reina; Johnson, Agger, Carragher, Enrique; Henderson, Lucas, Gerrard; Downing, Sturridge, Suárez.

Referee: Anthony Taylor

Source: Telegraph

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