Ilkay Gundogan, Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji are the three players to make way and all start on the bench.
Kevin De Bruyne will skipper the side this afternoon.
Teams
City: Ederson, Walker, Stones, Dias, Laporte, Rodrigo, De Bruyne (C), Bernardo, Mahrez, Grealish, Haaland
Subs: Ortega Moreno, Phillips, Ake, Gundogan, Alvarez, Gomez, Akanji, Palmer, Lewis
Leicester: Iversen, Castagne, Souttar, Faes, Soyuncu, Kristiansen, Ndidi, Tielemans, Dewsbury-Hall, Maddison, Vardy
Subs: Ward, Amarty, Thomas, Mendy, Praet, Marcal-Madivadua, Iheanacho, Daka, Tete
Foxes team notes:
Dean Smith makes four changes to the side that lost to Bournemouth last weekend.
Caglar Soyuncu returns to the side for only his third league appearance of the season.
Youri Tielemans plays after six weeks out and Harry Souttar and Kieran Dewsbury-Hall also return.
Daniel Amartey, Boubacary Soumare drop out while Ricardo Pereira and Harvey Barnes (injured) are also absent.
Formation/Tactics
City’s back four looks likely to see Kyle Walker at right-back, with John Stones and Ruben Dias in central defence and Aymeric Laporte at left-back.
Rodrigo will anchor a midfield trio with Bernardo and Kevin De Bruyne.
Up front, Riyad Mahrez will start on the right flank, Jack Grealish on the left with 45-goal Erling Haaland in the centre.
Blues must be ruthless
City come into the game six points behind leaders Arsenal having also played one game less.
It’s taken a while for the Blues to get back to within touching distance of the Gunners and with a tricky London derby away to West Ham on Sunday, Mikel Arteta’s side will be under pressure to win if City beat Leicester.
Dean Smith will hoping his arrival sparks a touch of ‘new manager bounce’ this afternoon, but the Foxes have been on a poor run for several months now and it won’t be easy to turn that around quickly.
Pep Guardiola won’t be concerned with Leicester’s plight, nor will his players be.
The Catalan will want his team to race out of the blocks and establish a comfortable lead as quickly as possible so he can rest one or two of his troops ahead of next Wednesday’s Champions League second leg clash with Bayern Munich.
WATCH: Watch Haaland’s 45 Manchester City goals so far
Guardiola’s expert balancing act
Keeping City on track for three major trophies requires expert and clever management.
Pep Guardiola is tweaking his team here and there, fine-tuning tactics for certain games and, as a result, the Blues have chipped away at Arsenal’s lead, progressed to the FA Cup semi-final, and take a healthy 3-0 lead to Munich next week.
The boss has resisted to rest too many of his key performers and the momentum that has built as a result has been impressive to say the least.
City are arguably the form team in England and Europe at present, and the manager and his coaching staff have guided the team towards a thrilling end to the campaign by keeping the squad balanced, making tough decisions when necessary with expert leadership.
WATCH: City’s best Premier League moments against Leicester City
Stats and milestones
- City have won 10 of their last 12 Premier League games against Leicester City (L2), winning the last four in a row since a 5-2 home defeat in September 2020.
- Leicester won four of their first five Premier League visits to Man City (L1) but have since lost five of their last six games at the Etihad (W1).
- Since losing 1-0 at Spurs in February, Man City have won seven of their last eight Premier League games (D1), including each of the last five in a row. They’ve scored 22 goals and conceded just six in this run, opening the scoring on seven occasions.
- Having lost seven of their last eight Premier League games (D1), Leicester have now lost 19 league matches overall this term. Not since 2001-02 (20) have the Foxes lost 20+ league matches in one season, while should they lose against City, it will be the joint-second earliest they have ever hit 20 defeats in a Football League campaign (31st match, level with 1914-15), after only 1980-81 (30th).
- Leicester have faced the most shots from high turnovers in the Premier League this season (50), while Manchester City have scored more goals following a high turnover than any other side (9).
- Erling Haaland has scored 30 Premier League goals for Manchester City this season, with only Andrew Cole ever netting more in their debut season in the competition (34 in 1993-94). The Norwegian is averaging a goal every 73 minutes so far and has a shot conversion rate of 32.3%.
- Kevin De Bruyne has assisted seven goals for Erling Haaland in the Premier League this season, the most by one Man City player for another in a single campaign. The Belgian’s next assist will be his 100th for the Citizens in the competition.
- Leicester midfielder James Maddison has scored in this exact fixture in each of the last two campaigns; only two visiting players have scored a Premier League goal at the Etihad in three consecutive seasons – Collins John (2004-05 to 2006-07) and Tim Cahill (2008-09 to 2010-11).
- Kelechi Iheanacho scored for Leicester in this exact fixture last season. The only former Man City player to score in consecutive Premier League away games against the Citizens is Paul Dickov, who did so in November 2003 and November 2004.
- Jamie Vardy has played 299 Premier League games and could be the first Leicester player to make 300 appearances in the competition. He’s scored more league goals against Pep Guardiola‘s Man City than any other player (8), while he’s one of just three players to be each of a club’s record appearance maker, goal scorer and assister in the competition (along with Troy Deeney at Watford and Wilfried Zaha at Crystal Palace).
