In come Ederson, Phil Foden, Rodrigo, and Eric Garcia, while David Silva, Nicolas Otamendi, Riyad Mahrez and Claudio Bravo all drop to the bench.
VIEW CITY v LIVERPOOL DIGITAL PROGRAMME
Teams:
City XI: Ederson, Walker, Mendy, Laporte, Garcia, Rodrigo, Gundogan, De Bruyne (c), Foden, Jesus, Sterling
Subs: Bravo, Stones, Zinchenko, Bernardo, D Silva, Mahrez, Otamendi, Doyle, Cancelo
Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Robertson, Van Dijk, Gomez, Fabinho, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Mane, Salah, Firmino
Formation analysis:
Eric Garcia gets the nod alongside Aymeric Laporte while John Stones makes a welcome return on the bench.
Kyle Walker and Benjamin Mendy will look to nullify the twin full-back threat of Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold – both of whom have become a major part of his Liverpool team.
Phil Foden will look to find pockets of space in behind Gabriel Jesus and it will be interesting to see what tactics Pep has in store for tonight.
An early line in the sand drawn for next season?
Make no mistake, this is no end-of-season game with nothing at stake.
Both line-ups reveal the manager’s intentions with strong starting XIs as expected.
City still need perhaps two more wins to secure second spot and Champions League qualification while Liverpool will be keen to break more records in the seven matches that remain (most if those our records!).
Though City will provide a guard of honour for Liverpool, it could serve to fire the hosts up even more.
This City squad are used to being called champions and will be gunning to win the title back next season.
We may see an early indication of what is to come in 2020/21 this evening, but it is likely we will see the two best teams in the country going for victory and, perhaps, occasionally throwing caution to the wind.
It should be a fascinating contest.
Injuries/suspensions
City: Fernandinho serves the final match of his two-game ban this evening.
Sergio Aguero is out after knee surgery.
Liverpool: Joel Matip is injured along with Xherdan Shaqiri and Dejan Lovren, while James Milner passed a late fitness test and is on the bench.
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Stats and facts
City are attempting to win three consecutive top-flight home matches against Liverpool for the first time since 1937.
Liverpool’s only victory in their past 10 league games at the Etihad Stadium came in Jurgen Klopp’s first match in charge against City in November 2015.
Liverpool are looking to complete a Premier League double over City for just the third time.
Liverpool require 15 points out of a possible 21 in their final seven league matches to break the English top-flight points record of 100, set by City in 2017-18.
Liverpool could go five successive away fixtures in all competitions without scoring for the first time since an eight-match run under Graeme Souness from February to April 1992.
Benjamin Mendy will make his 50th appearance for City this evening.
