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Manchester City take on Sunderland in the Premier League tonight aiming to close the gap to leaders Arsenal
Manchester City visit Sunderland tonight aiming to cut the gap to Premier League leaders Arsenal to two points. The Gunners eased past Aston Villa 4-1 on Tuesday night to extend their advantage at the top but City travel to the north east having won their past eight games in all competitions.
Pep Guardiola is set to welcome Jeremy Doku back into the squad with the winger closing in on a return from injury while Rodri is available having made the bench last time out at Nottingham Forest. Neither player is expected to start at the Stadium of Light though.
Guardiola has settled on an XI in recent weeks and with City having had five days off since the Forest game, he may well retain the same side. Gianluigi Donnarumma will start in goal while Mathues Nunes and Nico O'Reilly have made the full back positions their own in recent weeks.
John Stones remains sidelined and it's hard to see Nathan Ake parachuted into the team so Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol will be the centre back pairing with Nico Gonzalez again tasked with protecting the backline. Bernardo Silva and the in-form Tijjani Reijnders can complete the midfield trio.
Rayan Cherki has been sensational in recent weeks and surely keeps his place alongside Phil Foden and Erling Haaland as City aim to maintain their winning run. Savinho is perhaps the most likely candidate to come into the team but he may well have to make do with a place on the bench.
Speaking on his recent consistency in selection, Guardiola said: "Many many reasons. New squad, new players, a lot of players for their first season and sometimes give consistency, a lot of players. Playing regularly sometimes helps.
"I don't have a prediction when I start the season or a few days ago of the decision I'm going to take. It's right that lately we played the same guys, but with the schedule we have we arrive back at 2am and two days later we have Chelsea and Brighton are a really tough opponent. We don't have much players to rotate and we will see."
Predicted City XI: Donnarumma, Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O'Reilly, Gonzalez, Reijnders, Bernardo, Cherki, Foden, Haaland
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