The former Toffees defender was an unused substitute against Tottenham Hotspur last weekend, but comes back into the side in place of Kyle Walker, who drops to the bench.
Grealish is back in the squad after a three-match absence due to a shin injury, whilst Jesus is involved for the first time since our draw with Southampton last month after recovering from a knock sustained on international duty.
TEAMS
CITY: Ederson, Stones, Dias, Laporte, Cancelo, Rodrigo, Gundogan (C), De Bruyne, Bernardo, Foden, Sterling.
SUBS: Carson, Slicker, Walker, Ake, Jesus, Grealish, Zinchenko, Fernandinho, Mahrez.
EVERTON: Pickford, Coleman (c), Holgate, Keane, Kenny, Allan, Doucoure, Van de Beek, Gordon, Iwobi, Richarlison.
SUBS: Begovic, Patterson, Gray, Townsend, Mykolenko, Branthwaite, Rondon, El Ghazi, Dele.
Formation
It looks as if City will be lining up in Pep Guardiola’s preferred 4-3-3 formation, with Stones reprising the right-back role he filled against Sporting and Brentford.
Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte will form our centre-back pairing and Joao Cancelo completes the back four at left-back.
Rodrigo will adopt his usual anchor man role and will be joined in midfield by captain, Ilkay Gundogan, but we’ll have to wait until kick-off to see how we shape up at the attacking end of the pitch.
History would suggest that Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva are the two most likely candidates to lead the forward line, though one of the two will complete the midfield trio.
Raheem Sterling will likely operate on the right of the front three, with Phil Foden on the opposite flank, but, as always, expect City to take a fluid approach in the final third.
Stats and facts
- City have won each of our last four away league games against Everton, which is as many as we managed in our first 20 visits to Goodison Park in the Premier League.
- We have not dropped points in consecutive league fixtures since December 2020 when we were held to draws by Manchester United and West Bromwich Albion.
- City are looking to avoid losing successive league games for only the third time under Guardiola.
- The boss has lost just three of 67 Premier League matches against teams led by English managers (W59, D5).
- We have taken 32 points out of a possible 36 in our 12 league away games since losing at Tottenham Hotspur on the opening weekend of the season and are unbeaten in that period.
- We have conceded eight goals on the road, fewer than any other side in the league.
- Riyad Mahrez has scored 10 goals in his last 10 appearances for City and has only failed to score in one of those games.
- Since the start of November, Raheem Sterling has scored 12 goals in 18 appearances in all competitions for City – his previous 12 goals for the Club came across a 58-game spell between October 2020 and October 2021.
- Everton are on a run of eight straight league defeats against City. Their only longer losing streaks are 13 versus Portsmouth between 1947 and 1956, and nine to Manchester United between 1999 and 2004.
