Josko Gvardiol and Mateo Kovacic come into the side after Wednesday’s 3-1 win at Everton.
Gvardiol was a first-half substitute for the injured John Stones at Goodison Park and takes the England international’s place in the back four this afternoon.
Matheus Nunes is the other man to make way.
Attention then turns to the bench, with Kevin De Bruyne part of a matchday squad for the first time since the season opener with Burnley back in August.
City v Sheffield United | Live match updates
Today’s game marks our first home match since last Friday’s FIFA Club World Cup final, when we became the first English club to hold the Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup at the same time.
Victory today would see us move within two points of leaders Liverpool after 19 games each.
A positive result would also complete a full calendar year without defeat at the Etihad Stadium.
Teams
CITY XI: Ederson, Walker (C), Akanji, Ake, Gvardiol, Rodrigo, Kovacic, Bernardo, Foden, Grealish, Alvarez
Subs: Ortega Moreno, Dias, Phillips, De Bruyne, Gomez, Nunes, Bobb, Lewis, Hamilton
SHEFFIELD UNITED XI: Foderingham, Bogle, Baldock, Trusty, Robinson (C), Thomas, Norwood, Souza, Ben Slimane, Brooks, Osula
Subs: Davies, Brewster, McBurnie, Archer, Traore, Osborn, Larouci, Norrington-Davies, Seriki
Tactics
Goalkeeper Ederson plays behind a defence of Kyle Walker, Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake and Josko Gvardiol.
Rodrigo and Mateo Kovacic will anchor the midfield as Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish operate in the pockets ahead of them.
Julian Alvarez leads the line.
Fortress Etihad 2023
Avoiding defeat here would mean we have gone through the calendar year of 2023 without suffering a loss at our home ground.
The last time we were beat here was on 12 November 2022, when Brentford got the better of us just before the winter World Cup.
We have so far played 28 games at the Etihad in 2023, winning 25 of them.
Match stats
- City have never lost a Premier League game against Sheffield United (W8 D3), winning each of the last six in a row.
- Sheffield United have never scored in five Premier League away games against City – only Birmingham (7 against Manchester United) have visited a side more without ever scoring in the competition.
- There have been just 14 goals scored in 11 Premier League meetings between City (12 goals) and Sheffield United (2), an average of 1.3 per game. Of all fixtures to have been played at least 10 times, only Bolton v Southampton (1.2) has seen fewer goals-per-game.
- Sheffield United have lost their last nine league games against reigning top-flight champions, since beating Leeds United 2-1 in April 1993. Away from home, they’ve lost their last 11 such games since beating Arsenal 1-0 in August 1971.
- We City have lost our final league game in just one of the last 22 calendar years (W11 D10), going down 1-0 at Liverpool in 2016.
- Sheffield United won their final league game in both 2021 (1-0 at Fulham) and 2022 (2-1 at Blackpool), last doing so in three consecutive calendar years between 2004 and 2006.
- City have dropped six points from winning positions at home in the Premier League this season, two more than we had across 2021-22 (2) and 2022-23 (2) combined. All of these dropped points have come in our last three games, throwing away leads to draw with Liverpool (1-1), Tottenham (3-3) and Crystal Palace (2-2).
- All five of Sheffield United’s Premier League away goals this season have come in the second half of games. Indeed, they’ve failed to score before half-time in their last 10 on the road in the competition, their joint-longest such run (also 10 between October and January in 1993-94).
