Manchester City will be looking to return to winning ways on Wednesday when in-form Newcastle United visit the Etihad Stadium.
Pep Guardiola’s side remain comfortable in second place, although a shock defeat to Southampton last time out has prevented them from closing the gap to Liverpool.
It’s fair to say that Man City have been wildly inconsistent since the restart. The Cityzens returned to action with high-scoring victories over Arsenal and Burnley before losing to Chelsea.
City bounced back with a convincing 4-0 victory over newly-crowned champions Liverpool but were quickly brought back down to earth by a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Southampton.
Remarkably, Man City have now lost their previous three away games in the Premier League – the first time Guardiola has lost three consecutive away league games in his managerial career.
Having said that, City are unbeaten in the previous eight home games in the Premier League have been unstoppable at the Etihad throughout 2019/20.
Meanwhile, Newcastle have put together an impressive unbeaten run of their own. The Magpies are unbeaten in six Premier League games and have won their previous three away outings.
Victories over Southampton, Sheffield United and Bournemouth, along with draws against Burnley, Aston Villa and West Ham have put Newcastle within touching distance of the top half.
Paraguay international Miguel Almiron has netted in back-to-back games, while striker Dwight Gayle has scored two in his previous three appearances.
Head-to-head: These two sides have already met since the restart, with Man City inflicting a comfortable 2-0 win over Newcastle in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
However, Newcastle were unbeaten in their two meetings prior – drawing 2-2 in the reverse fixture back in November and beating City 2-1 last season.
It is worth pointing out that Man City notched up a six-game unbeaten run against Newcastle between 2015 and 2018.
Team news: Guardiola has chopped and changed his starting XI countless time since the resumption, although Sergio Aguero remains the club’s only long-term absentee.
As for Newcastle, Ciaran Clark and Florian Lejeune are yet to feature this side of the lay-off, while Allan Saint-Maximin and Isaac Hayden are both expected to sit out of Wednesday’s clash through injury.
Newcastle have been in fine form since the break, so Steve Bruce’s men will definitely be confident of causing an upset at the Etihad.
However, it goes without saying that Man City’s unstoppable home record makes them firm favourites heading into this game.
Forebet predicts that Manchester City will score over 2.5 goals on their way to victory