Manchester City are back on the pitch after losing out on the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo.
City have learned this week that they won’t be signing Harry Kane, and their hopes of signing Ronaldo as an alternative were dashed when his former club Manchester United made a late move to steal the signing.
The Blues are back in action in Saturday’s early kick-off, taking on Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal at the Etihad, looking to record back-to-back wins after the opening day defeat to Tottenham. Pep Guardiola’s side should be full of confidence after beating Norwich 5-0 in style.
Guardiola confirmed he will be without the injured Kevin De Bruyne, while Benjamin Mendy has been suspended by the club and won’t feature. The City boss named an unchanged line up from the side that beat Norwich.
City XI: Ederson; Walker, Dias, Laporte, Cancelo; Rodrigo, Gundogan, Bernardo; Grealish, Torres, Jesus.
Steffen, Stones, Ake, Sterling, Zinchenko, Fernandinho, Mahrez, Doyle, Palmer.
Guardiola breaks silence on Ronaldo transfer
City wanted to sign Cristiano Ronaldo before he ended up back at United at the last minute.
Guardiola keeps faith in Norwich XI
It’s a sign of how well Guardiola thinks City played against Norwich that he has picked the same starting XI for this game – or maybe a sign that he thinks Arsenal will play similarly!
The manager was thrilled with his stars last Saturday after the game and that looks to have carried through the week with no substitutes able to do enough in training to force their way into the team.
Pep comes out to defend Arteta
Guardiola didn’t get too many questions about the game in his press conference, but he still went out to bat a number of times for Mikel Arteta as he said to look at the table after 10 or 12 games rather than two.
If Arteta loses a third straight league match he could come under pressure not to make it to 12, but the same logic applies to City.
We can’t yet take very much from either the defeat to Tottenham or the win over Norwich.
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