Pep Guardiola has made four changes to his Manchester City side for this afternoon's Premier League trip to Everton.

After Tuesday night’s draw at Real Madrid, Aymeric Laporte replaces John Stones in defence.

Julian Alvarez, Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez come in for Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva further up the pitch.

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It means Club captain Ilkay Gundogan will make his 300th City appearance this afternoon.

We come into the Goodison Park encounter in excellent form having won our last 10 Premier League matches and gone unbeaten in 21 games across all competitions.

Everton moved out of the relegation zone with a 5-1 win at Brighton earlier this week and will be looking for another three points to move further from danger.

Teams

CITY XI: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Laporte, Akanji, Rodrigo, Gundogan (C), Mahrez, Alvarez, Foden, Haaland

Subs: Ortega Moreno, Phillips, Stones, Grealish, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Gomez, Palmer, Lewis

EVERTON XI: Pickford (c), Patterson, Tarkowski, Mina, Holgate, Gana, Garner, Doucoure, McNeil, Iwobi, Calvert-Lewin

Subs: Begovic, Lonergan, Keane, Onana, Gray, Maupay, Coady, Simms, Welch

Tactics

Ederson keeps his place between the sticks with a defence of Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias, Aymeric Laporte and Manuel Akanji ahead of him. It is expected Akanji will feature on the left and Laporte on the left side of the two central defenders.

Rodrigo and Gundogan will play as the deepest midielders with Julian Alvarez, Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez ahead of them and looking to supply Erling Haaland.

GUNDOGAN’S MILESTONE

The German international has been central to everything we have done well under Pep Guardiola since becoming his first signing back in 2016.

His haul of 11 major honours represents his contribution to a golden period in the Club’s history and to have played 300 times and scored 56 goals over that stretch shows how well regarded he is by Guardiola and his coaching staff.

The No.8 was chosen by his peers to be Club captain upon the departure of Fernandinho last summer and his consistency on the pitch and calm, measured personality off it have made him the ideal representative for a squad again chasing the biggest honours in the game.

Able to control the tempo and rhythm of matches, his experience and knowhow could again be crucial this afternoon.

Rest and rotate

With so many games already under our belt since the international break at the end of March and with at least five more to come, it’s important Guardiola uses his squad.

The second leg of our Champions League semi-final awaits at the Etihad on Wednesday night.

John Stones, Jack Grealish, Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva have all been integral to our recent form and you would expect them to feature heavily again in midweek.

However, the energy, enthusiasm and world-class talents of Julian Alvarez, Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez are more than able replacements today.

 

Match stats

  • Everton have won just one of their last 19 Premier League meetings with Manchester City (D5 L13).
  • City have won our last five Premier League away games against Everton, as many as we had in their previous 26 top-flight visits to Goodison Park (D7 L14). We could become just the second side to win six in a row away against Everton, after Portsmouth between 1948 and 1956.
  • Everton drew 1-1 with Man City in the reverse fixture at the Etihad Stadium – not since 2016-17 have they avoided defeat in both Premier League meetings with City, which included a 1-1 away draw.
  • Everton won 5-1 at Brighton in their last Premier League match, last winning consecutive games back in October. They’ve won just four of their 46 Premier League games against sides starting the day top of the table, but one of those was against Arsenal this season in Sean Dyche’s first game in charge.
  • Manchester City have won each of our last 10 Premier League games, the fifth time we have had a winning run of 10+ matches under Pep Guardiola. The only other managers to have had more than one 10+ game winning streak in Premier League history are Jürgen Klopp (3), Alex Ferguson (2), and Arsène Wenger (2).
  • No side has scored fewer home goals than Everton in the Premier League this season (15), with the Toffees scoring more than once on just one occasion at Goodison Park so far this term (3-0 v Crystal Palace in October).
  • Having been unbeaten in his first two Premier League meetings with Man City in the 2014-15 campaign (W1 D1), Everton boss Sean Dyche has since lost 11 of his last 12 against them in the competition (D1).
  • Alex Iwobi has provided a league-high seven assists for Everton this season – the last Toffees player to provide more in a Premier League campaign was Ross Barkley (8 in 2016-17), while it’s the joint-most a Nigerian player has ever provided in a single campaign (Peter Odemwingie also 7 in 2010-11).
  • Since Sean Dyche’s first game in charge in February, Dwight McNeil has been involved in more Premier League goals for Everton than any other player (7 – 5 goals, 2 assists).
  • Man City‘s Riyad Mahrez has provided nine assists in the Premier League this season, including four in his last three appearances. Having delivered 11 in 2015-16 and 10 in 2017-18, he could become the third African player to reach double figures in three separate campaigns in the competition, after Didier Drogba and Mohamed Salah.