Manchester City welcome Everton to the Etihad Stadium on Monday night in the final game of the weekend in the Premier League.
Both teams won their opening matches of the 2017/18 Premier League campaign last weekend and will be looking to build on that start in this match. For Manchester City that means picking up another 3 points but Everton would probably be happy to make the short trip back to Goodison with a point.
Manchester City finished third in the Premier League last season and Pep Guardiola ended his first season in English football without a trophy. Having invested heavily in players again this summer, the Spaniard will be expected to challenge at the top of the Premier League and that means winning games like this one.
Everton finished seventh in the Premier League last season, well clear of Southampton who were in eighth place. It’s always going to be difficult for Ronald Koeman to break into the top six places in the league and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Everton end this season in the same place they did last time around.
Manchester City started the new season with a 2-0 win at Brighton and Hove Albion. They were forced to be patient but eventually made the breakthrough in the second half and dominated the game. Guardiola will be pleased to have come away from the match with a clean sheet and not answering questions about his defence.
Everton have been playing competitive football for a few weeks thanks to their involvement in the Europa League. Therefore, the Toffees were expected to hit the ground running and did so by picking up a 1-0 win over Stoke City.
Everyone at the club was delighted to see Wayne Rooney get off the mark in his second spell at his boyhood club and Everton fans will be hoping he can rediscover the form he showed when at Manchester United.
Attempting to predict a Guardiola team is very difficult and he may choose to include both Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Aguero from the start, just as he did at Brighton last week. Despite making a return to first team action in a friendly during the week, Ilkay Gundogan is expected to start on the bench at best.
Everton still have several long-term absentees including Seamus Coleman, Yannick Bolasie, Ramiro Funes Mori, Ross Barkley and James McCarthy. New record signing Gylfi Sigurdsson may have to settle for a place on the bench.
Given Manchester City’s good run of form at home towards the end of last season and Everton’s poor away record, a home win looks the most likely outcome from this match.
However, despite keeping a clean sheet last weekend, Manchester City’s defence is yet to be fully tested this season and they kept only five clean sheets at home throughout the whole of their last Premier League campaign.
Expect Everton to test Manchester City defensively at times but for the home side to come through to claim maximum points.