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Reigning champions Manchester City host Everton in the Premier League on New Year’s Eve.
Pep Guardiola’s side cantered back into top-flight proceedings with a victory over Leeds United on Wednesday night. A match which took the Sky Blues to within five points of leaders Arsenal was so laden with chances, City could afford to be grossly wasteful in front of goal and still run out as 3-1 victors.
Everton have been inefficient at the top end of the pitch all season. Only West Ham have underperformed their expected goals figure by a larger margin this term (squandering openings worth around six goals according to FBref). A slew of missed opportunities was painfully punished by Wolves in the 95th minute on Boxing Day, reducing the gap between the Toffees and the drop zone to just one point.
Here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming meeting between two teams at opposite ends of the table.
Man City vs Everton H2H Results (Last Five Games)
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Man City team news
City’s only notable absentees are both legacies of the winter World Cup. While Julian Alvarez slowly tears himself away from the celebrations in Argentina, Ruben Dias is nursing a hamstring injury sustained while representing Portugal.
Perhaps most worryingly of all for those without allegiance to City, Guardiola insists that the goal-greedy Erling Haaland is still ‘not at his best’ while he continues to recover from a foot problem he picked up in the Champions League.
Man City Starting 11 (4-3-3): Ederson; Lewis, Stones, Laporte, Ake; Gundogan, Rodri, Bernardo; Foden, Haaland, Grealish.
Bench: Ortega, Akanji, Gomez, Walker, Cancelo, Phillips, Mahrez, De Bruyne, Palmer.
Everton team news
Conor Coady will once again be available after sitting out the league encounter with his parent club, Wolves, on Boxing Day. The England international may rekindle his partnership with James Tarkowski after Yerry Mina marked his return from injury with a goal but hobbled off in the second half.
Andros Townsend suffered a setback in his recovery from a serious knee injury and James Garner isn’t expected to return from a back problem until February.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin is the most notable absentee for the goal-shy Toffees. The injury-prone striker is building back his fitness but Frank Lampard is wary of triggering another issue by hastily reintroducing his number nine. “The last thing we want to do is go too soon with him,” Lampard warned.
Everton Starting 11 (4-3-3): Pickford; Patterson, Coady, Tarkowski, Mykolenko; Iwobi, Gueye, Onana; Gordon, Maupay, McNeil.
Bench: Begovic, Godfrey, Holgate, Vinagre, Coleman, Davies, Doucoure, Gray, Calvert-Lewin.
Manchester City‘s meetings with Everton have followed a familiar pattern in recent years; City victories.
Guardiola’s side have won each of their past ten matches against Everton and are heavy favourites to make it 11 on the spin against opposition in such woeful form. After four consecutive defeats across all competitions, Lampard made what can only be seen as a desperate appeal for ‘the crowd to stick with’ his players.
If City can extend their winning run in this fixture, Lampard may be asking for more support thrown his way next.
Prediction: Man City 3-0 Everton
