Pep Guardiola gives Nico O'Reilly update for Arsenal after Man City scare

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Manchester City defender Nico O'Reilly had to come off in the win over Chelsea last week and Pep Guardiola was asked about his fitness

Manchester City got a boost for their Premier League game with Arsenal with Nico O'Reilly passed fit for the encounter. The defender scored both goals in the Carabao Cup final last month as the Blues won the first title of the season and sent a message to the Premier League leaders.

O'Reilly came off after just over an hour in the Chelsea game with what looked like a hamstring injury and headed straight down the tunnel. He returned to the pitch at full-time and did not appear to be in much discomfort as he applauded the City fans that had made the journey down.

City will definitely be without centre-backs Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol. Croatian defender Gvardiol has not played since picking up a serious injury at the beginning of January, while Dias has been out since the Carabao Cup final last month and will not recover in time for the Premier League clash or FA Cup semi-final next week.

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Guardiola did not go into more details about the injury to Dias but did give more confirmation than he needed to about O'Reilly: "Ruben is not ready and Nico is fine. I prefer to have everybody but during the season players always have injuries."

Nathan Ake partnered Abdukodir Khusanov against Arsenal at Wembley in the League Cup final and then Marc Guehi stepped in for Ake for the Liverpool and Chelsea matches. With John Stones having a number of injury issues over the course of the season, Guehi and Khusanov look like the pair that will start.

The winner of Sunday's game will be seen as decisive in the title race, although a City victory would still leave them with work to do. Even three points against Burnley next week may not be enough to take them above Arsenal on goal difference, and Guardiola warned that there are many difficult games ahead.