Manchester City are juggling a number of absentees as they face West Ham this afternoon.
Pep Guardiola’s side have lost some key men in recent weeks, including in-form left-winger Jeremy Doku and centre-back John Stones to add to the absences of Rodri and Mateo Kovacic.
Youngster Oscar Bobb will also be out for a prolonged period after he suffered a hamstring injury against Brentford in the Carabao Cup victory in midweek.
That is then supplemented by the Africa Cup of Nations absentees, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Omar Marmoush, who have jetted off to represent Algeria and Egypt, respectively.
That leaves Guardiola with a fairly bare bones squad going into the festive period, and the Spaniard revealed in his pre-match press conference that none of his injured stars would be fit enough to return this weekend.
Otherwise, it is business as usual for City.
Gianluigi Donnarumma returns between the sticks after James Trafford was given a rare run-out against Brentford, and Matheus Nunes continues at right-back.
Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias are restored in the heart of defence and Nico O’Reilly gets the nod at left-back once again.
In the engine room, Bernardo Silva, Nico Gonzalez and Tijjani Reijnders all start with Phil Foden and Rayan Cherki selected in the advanced roles behind the rested Erling Haaland.
Confirmed team news
Man City XI: Donnarumma, Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly, Nico, Bernardo (C), Reijnders, Foden, Cherki, Haaland
Subs: Trafford, Ake, Savinho, Khusanov, Gray, Mukasa, Lewis, Mfuni, Heskey
