The starting lineups are in ahead of Manchester City’s clash with Aston Villa | OneFootball

Manchester City and Aston Villa have confirmed their starting lineups ahead of today’s pivotal Premier League fixture at Villa Park. It looms as a tough test for Pep Guardiola’s side. Unai Emery’s team are no easy beat at home. The fact that City came into today’s game after winning only one of their past eleven games makes the game that much more difficult.

For Manchester City, there was both good and bad news on the injury front this week. Manuel Akanji, John Stones and Rico Lewis are all available for today’s match. Lewis returns after a one-game suspension. Manuel Akanji and John Stones both returned to training earlier this week. That is the good news for Pep Guardiola’s side.

But in bad news for Manchester City Pep Guardiola confirmed yesterday that Ruben Dias will be out for up to a month. The Portuguese international picked up a muscle injury during last Sunday’s 2-1 defeat to Manchester United. He will join Rodri and Oscar Bobb on the sidelines for today’s match. Ederson is also in doubt for today’s match. Pep Guardiola confirmed that City’s number one keeper may not feature during today’s match.

Here are the starting lineups in what is looming as a pivotal match for Pep Guardiola’s side.

Manchester City

Pep Guardiola has made 6 changes to the team that lost to Manchester United. In comes Stefan Ortega, Rico Lewis, Manuel Akanji, John Stones, Mateo Kovacic and Jack Grealish. Out goes Ruben Dias, Ederson, Kyle Walker, Jeremy Doku, Kevin De Bruyne and Matheus Nunes.

Ederson misses today’s match due to injury. Matheus Nunes is also out of today’s match as he didn’t travel with the Manchester City squad for today’s match. The bigger surprise is seeing Nathan Ake named as a substitute. The expectation was that he wouldn’t make today’s match.

Starting lineup: Stefan Ortega, Lewis, Stones, Akanji, Gvardiol, Kovacic, Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Foden, Grealish, Haaland.

Substitutes: Carson, Walker, Ake, Doku, De Bruyne, Savinho, Simpson-Pusey, O’Reilly, McAtee.

Aston Villa