Manchester City will begin their Carabao Cup campaign on Wednesday evening when they take on Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium.
City will play two matches in less than 72 hours before their players head off to the World Cup, and the first of those is a knockout cup fixture against Chelsea. City were eliminated in the fourth round last season by West Ham, but a quick glance at City's record in the competition shows Pep Guardiola is a big fan of the tournament.
City won the Carabao Cup four seasons on the bounce between 2018 and 2021, and will be keen to reclaim their crown. However, after the exertion of Saturday's win against Fulham and the prospect of having little to no recovery time before facing Brentford this weekend, it seems likely that Guardiola will have to make a few changes to his starting line-up.
READ MORE: Pep Guardiola issues injury update on Erling Haaland ahead of Man City vs Chelsea
Defence
As the 'cup' goalkeeper, Stefan Ortega will come in for Ederson. With Joao Cancelo and Kyle Walker both unavailable through suspension and injury respectively, it seems an ideal opportunity to give minutes to Rico Lewis and Sergio Gomez. These are the kinds of situations both must use to step up and impress their manager.
Keeping in line with Guardiola's centre-back rotation policy of late, it seems logical that Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte should come in to replace Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake.
Midfield
In an ideal world Kalvin Phillips would come straight into the starting XI to give Rodri a rest, but while Guardiola confirmed that the English midfielder is available after recovering from shoulder surgery, he will likely start on the bench.
Bernardo Silva must have felt like he ran a marathon on Saturday, but against an opponent with as much quality as Chelsea Guardiola might want him on the pitch. Kevin De Bruyne should be protected for the weekend, allowing Phil Foden to drop into midfield as he did against Sevilla last week.
Attack
Erling Haaland may well have come off the bench to score the winner on Saturday but Guardiola has confirmed that the striker is still struggling with an ankle ligament issue. Julian Alvarez could well start in his place to increase the Norwegian's chances of being fit for City's final pre-World Cup league outing.
Riyad Mahrez didn't feature against Fulham so is an obvious candidate to play on Wednesday, while Grealish could stay on the left if Foden is in midfield.
Predicted XI: Ortega; Lewis, Dias, Laporte, Gomez; Rodri, Foden, Bernardo; Mahrez, Alvarez, Grealish
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