Four Manchester City stars reportedly ABSENT from travelling squad to face Brentford | OneFootball

A list of Manchester City first-team stars are reportedly absent from the squad that has made the journey to Brentford for Sunday afternoon’s Premier League finale.

The newly-crowned Premier League champions – who lifted their third successive top-flight title last Sunday afternoon – make the journey to the south for the second time this week after their 1-1 draw at Brighton on Wednesday night.

Thomas Frank’s side still have a job to do this weekend, as the Bees eye a place in the UEFA Conference League with a win over Manchester City, and providing results elsewhere in the division go their way on Sunday.

With an FA Cup final against Manchester United, as well as a Champions League final against Inter, on the horizon next month, City boss Pep Guardiola continues to face the challenge of resting and rotating his squad, whilst also keeping tempo and rhythm high.

As part of finding that balance, a report in the build-up to Brentford against Manchester City at the Gtech Community Stadium has stated that four first-team names have been left out of the travelling party that have made the journey to West London this week.

According to information obtained by FPL Raptor on Twitter, Jack Grealish, Ruben Dias, Kevin De Bruyne, and Manuel Akanji have all not travelled with the Manchester City squad ahead of this afternoon’s game.

Sunday afternoon could see the return of Nathan Ake to Manchester City’s matchday squad list, after the Dutchman was understood to have returned to full training earlier this week after recovering from a muscular problem.

Aymeric Laporte was also part of the five names left out of the squad that took on Brighton in midweek, and it remains to be seen whether he has returned to Pep Guardiola’s travelling party this weekend.

City’s full attentions will turn to the Emirates FA Cup final following the clash against Brentford this weekend, with Pep Guardiola making it very clear how wary he is of the threat posed by Erik ten Hag’s side.

Speaking during his press conference on Friday afternoon, the City boss said, “We respect them a lot, Manchester United for what they have done in this country, in Europe. It’s just a football game, so we don’t misunderstand. They want to beat us, I don’t know the reasons why, but like we want to beat them and we know how important it is for our fans.

“But it’s a football game, it’s just to figure out what Erik (ten Hag) has done to us in two games, and what we can figure out to do it, and I saw the pace they have, the rhythm they have, the personality with (Raphael) Varane and Casemiro – they have won, I don’t know, I can’t count how many Champions Leagues they’ve won.

“These games are how you behave, the quality, it’s not tactics – tactics are important, of course it is, but it’s the composure to play this type of game. And I think they have it. But in the last years we were better, I’m pretty sure they want to beat us, but at the same time we want to beat them.”