The Manchester City manager is without long-term absentees Ilkay Gundogan and Gabriel Jesus – but everyone else is fit and in contention for a starting place against Mark Hughes’ side, with Vincent Kompany back in full training and ready to play.
The City boss also gave an update on Jesus, who is working daily at the CFA in a bid to recover from his metatarsal injury as quickly as possible.
“No [new injuries],” he said. “[Some] people tired, the rest are okay.
“Vincent has started training regularly. He made a training session yesterday with the group that didn’t play [at Sunderland] and today he trained.
“Gabriel has never been away from here. He went to Barcelona to see Ramon Cugat, the doctor, but after that two or three days he came back and every day he is with us - breakfast, lunch, and of course the therapy with the physios.
“I see him every day.
“I saw yesterday his mother. It was very nice. We live in the same building and I did not recognise her! And today I ask him ‘was it your mother yesterday’ and he say ‘yes’.
“Next time I will know exactly who she is!”
City are in a fine run of form, winning nine and drawing two of their 12 matches since the turn of the year.
Guardiola believes the team is playing better now than they were at the start of the season when they went on a 10-game winning streak and he says his ideas are beginning to become embedded in the team’s style of play.
“Yeah, we are playing better than the beginning,” he said. “At the beginning we won games where we played good but the enthusiasm helped, we were in the beginning.
“Now I feel what we make is what we speak about in training a little bit more. The situations come more fluidly. Our build-up is more fluid; our game is a little bit better.
“Of course, the opponents will cause problems in the next games and we have to try to solve it.”
