There were smiles aplenty as Pep Guardiola fine tuned things on the training pitch ahead of Aston Villa’s visit to the Etihad Stadium.

The City squad went through their final preparations on Friday afternoon and despite the cool Manchester weather, they appeared to be in buoyant mood, while Raheem Sterling was sporting some eye-catching headwear.

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The defending Premier League champions welcome Dean Smith’s Villa in Saturday’s early kick-off and will be looking to make it three wins in seven days after last weekend’s victory over Crystal Palace was followed by a 5-1 win over Atalanta in midweek.

We will line up without Rodrigo and Oleksandr Zinchenko, however, with Guardiola confirming at his pre-match press conference that injury has ruled both players out for around a month.

Check out the best of the images from today’s training session in the gallery below…