City make four changes for Premier League clash with Liverpool | OneFootball

City have made four changes for today’s Premier League match with Liverpool with Rico Lewis, Nathan Ake, Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku all starting.

The Blues have the chance to cement our place in the top four against Arne Slot’s side at the Etihad.

Ruben Dias, Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva move to the bench from the team that started against Real Madrid while John Stones is out after suffering a muscle injury in the Champions League clash.

January signings Omar Marmoush, Nico, and Abdukodir Khusanov all continue while Erling Haaland is not fully fit and not part of today’s matchday squad.

TEAMS

City XI: Ederson, Lewis, Khusanov, Ake, Gvardiol, Nico, De Bruyne (C), Savinho, Foden, Doku, Marmoush

Subs: Ortega Moreno, Dias, Kovacic, Grealish, Gundogan, Bernardo, Reis, Nunes, McAtee

Liverpool XI: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Konate, van Dijk (C), Robertson, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Jones, Szoboszlai, Salah, Diaz

Subs: Kelleher, Endo, Nunez, Chiesa, Gakpo, Elliott, Jota, Tsimikas, Quansah

TACTICS

Injuries have once against impacted Pep Guardiola's options but it's still a strong line-up for the visit of the league leaders.

Lewis is likely to come in at right-back with Khusanov moving across into the centre alongside Ake with Josko Gvardiol on the left-side of defence.

After an impressive home debut, Nico is likely to continue as the holding midfielder with De Bruyne and Phil Foden in a three.

Doku and Savinho can play on either flank with Marmoush once again leading the line.

Egyptian kings

Today’s clash will be watched around the world, with interest from everywhere from Asuncion to Zagreb and Adelaide to Zurich.

Football fans in Egypt have a particular interest in today’s game as it sees the country's two biggest stars in Omar Marmoush and Mohamed Salah going head-to-head.

Our new forward was sensational last week scoring his first career hat-trick in a 4-0 win over Newcastle United and also claiming an assist against Real Madrid.

Salah, meanwhile, has been one of the Premier League’s best players in recent years and currently leads the goalscoring charts.

Close to 10 million viewers are expected to tune in Egypt for today’s game and let’s hope it’s the new star who thrills his nation the most.

MATCH STATS

City have lost just one of our 15 Premier League home games against Liverpool, winning eight, going down 4-1 in November 2015 under Manuel Pellegrini.

Following our 2-0 win at Anfield in December, Liverpool are looking to complete the Premier League double over City for just the third time (also 2005/06 and 2015/16).

Liverpool have achieved the Premier League double over the reigning champions six times previously, more than any other side in the competition’s history (Blackburn in 1995/96, Man Utd in 2000/01, 2001/02, 2008/09 and 2013/14, and Chelsea in 2010/11).

Since Christmas, only Liverpool and Arsenal have won more points in the Premier League than City. In their eight games beforehand, City picked up only four points.

Liverpool are unbeaten in each of their last 13 Premier League games played on a Sunday while scoring multiple goals in each of those matches, since a 1-0 home defeat to Crystal Palace in April 2024.

Our 4-0 victory over Newcastle United was the first Premier League game this season in which we didn’t face a single big chance, while their xG faced of 0.48 was their third-fewest in a game in 2024-25.

In just six Premier League matches in 2025, City have scored 20 goals from only 81 shots, a league-high conversion rate of 24.7% this calendar year. Our shot conversion between August and December this season was only 9.6%.

Mohamed Salah has been involved in more Premier League goals against Pep Guardiola’s side (since 2016/17) than any other player (13 – 8 goals, 5 assists). In fact, only Steven Gerrard (14) has been involved in more against the Citizens in the competition’s history (4 goals, 10 assists).

Nico completed 100 passes on his Premier League debut against Newcastle, the second-most by a midfielder on their first appearance on record (since 2003/04). The most passes completed by a player in his first two games is 192 by Chelsea defender Thiago Silva in 2020.

Ederson has three Premier League assists this season and could become the first goalkeeper ever to assist in three consecutive Premier League appearances, with Shay Given in 1998 and Pepe Reina in 2009 previously doing so in two in a row.