Manchester City will return to FA Cup action as they get ready to travel to Wales for their fifth-round clash at Swansea City. What is the team news like for the Manchester side heading into this game? (For the Manchester City starting XI prediction go here)
City are coming into this match on the back of a season defining win at the home of the defending Premier League champions. The Sunday win at Liverpool is one that will be huge in the context of this season. They will want to use that momentum when they take to the pitch on Wednesday.
Guardiola will still be without a few key members of the squad as there are several out due to injury or illness. One of them is Kevin De Bruyne who injured his hamstring in January and is expected to return to action, at earliest, towards the end of this month.
The other players who will be missing are Sergio Aguero and Nathan Ake. The forward recently tested positive for COVID and is thought to be out for another fortnight. As for the centre back, it is not known as to when he will return, given that he has a tricky muscular issue that is keeping him out of action.
City have a great chance to move to the next round of the cup as they face off against the Welsh side. It gives them an opportunity to rotate their squad and keep some of the senior players fresh for the weekend’s league game.
Swansea do have some good players in their side, such as Andre Ayew and Conor Hourihane. However, this is City, who have much more talent in their second team than most clubs have in their first unit.
Even if they decide to give a rest to their star players, they will still have more than enough firepower to win. Manchester City are putting their stamp on the title race and will be looking at winning the FA Cup as well.
They are in tremendous form and the likes of Raheem Sterling and Phil Foden will be raring to go. If City can get their midfield and attack involved in the game, it will become very hard for the hosts to mae this competitive. Guardiola and his players will be confident of returning from Wales with a win.