The striker has missed our last three matches after picking up an injury against West Ham United last month.
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Before the midweek win over Olympiakos, Pep Guardiola admitted Aguero’s condition was improving, but the City boss has now ruled him out of our clash with defending Premier League champions.
“No, he’s not ready,” he said at his pre-match media briefing. “Not yet.”
Liverpool are in a similar situation, with Jurgen Klopp revealing he does not expect midfielder Thiago Alcantara to recover in time as he admitted that City remain his side’s toughest fixture.
Guardiola agrees with his rival, but whilst he acknowledged the importance of Sunday’s meeting, he feels that with so many games left to play, it is too early for it to be billed as a title decider.
“It is an important game, but like presidential elections in the USA all the votes must be counted,” he added. “[There are] a lot of points to play for.
“Of course, it is important. We cannot deny that. But it is just the seventh game and there are a lot of points to play.
“We know we have to do a good performance to beat them, we won and lost in the past. We are going to do our best to beat them.”
Though Liverpool got the better of us last season, these are matches Guardiola looks forward to.
The Spaniard knows Klopp’s men will come to the Etihad Stadium with more attacking intent than most teams and expects there to be periods in the game when we’ll be under pressure, which is why he says it will be particularly important to take our own chances when they arrive.
“It is always nice to play against the strongest teams possible,” Guardiola said.
“Last year they were stronger. They have been an exceptional team for a long time, with an exceptional manager. It is nice to face them to improve our level.
“When you play against teams like Liverpool and other teams you always have moments where you have to suffer. We know it. We have to do it.
“We’ll try to use it to our strengths as much as possible. We know each other quite well. We have played each other many times.
“There will be up and down moments. We need to take our chances and be clinical.”
You can watch full match replays of every men’s first team game within 24-hours of the final whistle on CITY+.
