Ait-Nouri starts as Rodri misses out

As anticipated, Rodri misses out with a groin subject, that means Rayan Ait-Nouri earns a recall.

It means a slight tactical tweak for a City facet trying to climb to the Premier League summit with a victory.

Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol additionally stay sidelined with harm.

Teams

CITY: Donnarumma, Nunes, Khusanov, Guéhi, Ait-Nouri, Bernardo (C), O’Reilly, Semenyo, Cherki, Doku, Haaland

Subs: Trafford, Reijnders, Stones, Aké, Marmoush, Kovacic, Nico, Savinho, Foden

BURNLEY:  Dubravka, Walker, Ekdal, Laurent, Estève, Hartman; Humphreys, Tchaouna, Ward-Prowse; Anthony, Flemming.

Subs: Weiss, Worrall, Ugochukwu, Foster, Edwards, Florentino, Pires, Broja, Tresor.

Tactics and formation

Pep Guardiola has discovered his most settled tam of the season and is barely altering gamers if he’s compelled to.

Rodri’s absence is a blow, however the ever versatile Nico O’Reilly will take his midfield berth in opposition to the Clarets.

That means a recall for Ait-Nouri at left-back, with the Algerian wanting sharp in latest weeks.

Expect O’Reilly to kind a double pivot with skipper Bernardo and Rayan Cherki to take up the  superior, artistic central midfield spot.

Elsewhere, it’s as you have been in what seems on paper to be a 4-2-3-1 formation.

Total Focus

It was claimed In some quarters that City’s celebrations in opposition to Arsenal have been over-zealous.

That has been swatted apart by Guardiola, who pointed out the magnitude of that victory and the way it was achieved in.

With a pumped up Etihad, the gamers fairly rightly celebrated an important win that, had the outcome gone in opposition to us, would probably have ended our title problem.

So why not benefit from the second?

To recommend the City gamers and followers believed the victory over the Gunners meant successful the Premier League is a formality is ridiculous.

The second the sport was over, the main focus switched to Burnley and the gamers have been visibly calm and had their toes firmly on the bottom.

We have six enormous Premier League fixtures forward of us, beginning with this night’s journey to Burnley, who will struggle tooth and nail to not lose their high flight standing in entrance of their very own followers.

Winning the following sport is, and was all the time our solely focus

Every sport a closing

City have a chance to go from the hunters to the hunted if we are able to safe three factors in opposition to Burnley.

That means a possible mentality shift for each the Blues and Arsenal.

It additionally implies that there isn’t any room for even a minor slip-up, and our mindset shall be that the Gunners will win their remaining 5 video games.

Pep Guardiola is spot-on when he says he and his gamers usually are not fascinated with objective distinction, solely successful the matches in entrance of us.

If objective distinction does come into play, it may actually come to the fore if each groups are on equal factors going into the ultimate couple of video games.

Winning is all that issues, as a result of the staff that finishes second may doubtlessly have one of the best objective distinction – however much less factors.

Stats and details

Burnley have received simply certainly one of their 19 Premier League video games in opposition to City (D3 L15). They’ve misplaced their final 11 in a row in opposition to them, their longest ever shedding run in opposition to an opponent of their league historical past.

City have received 14 of their final 15 Premier League video games in opposition to Burnley (D1) since a 1-0 loss at Turf Moor in March 2015.

City have scored 5+ targets in 5 totally different Premier League matches in opposition to Burnley – no facet has finished so extra usually in opposition to one other within the competitors’s historical past.

Burnley are winless of their final 12 dwelling Premier League matches – solely as soon as of their league historical past have that they had an extended league run with out successful at Turf Moor, going 14 between February and October 2021.

Since the beginning of December, no staff has received extra away factors within the Premier League than City (21 – W6 D3 L1), with their solely defeat coming at Old Trafford versus rivals Man Utd in January.

Last season, Burnley solely conceded eight dwelling league targets, the fewest of any facet in England’s top-four tiers. They have conceded 25 this season, a rise of 212.5% on final season’s tally – the most important enhance in consecutive seasons since Watford conceded 283% extra targets in 2021-22 (46) than 2020-21 (12).

City are unbeaten of their final 29 Premier League matches in opposition to newly promoted groups (W26 D3) since shedding 2-1 to Leeds in April 2021. Only 5 groups have gone 30+ video games unbeaten in opposition to promoted golf equipment within the competitors, most just lately Spurs between September 2012 and November 2018 (39).

Burnley boss Scott Parker has misplaced all 5 of his Premier League matches in opposition to City by an combination rating of 16-1, certainly one of 4 groups he’s confronted and misplaced each time together with Watford (L1), Brentford (L2) and Fulham (L2). Only Dean Smith (6) and Marco Silva (14) have confronted City extra usually within the competitors and misplaced every sport.

Antoine Semenyo has scored in all three of his Premier League appearances in opposition to Burnley, already scoring in opposition to the Clarets for Bournemouth earlier this season. Jørgen Strand Larsen has already netted in opposition to them for 2 groups this season (Wolves and Crystal Palace); 2010-11 was the final time two gamers scored in opposition to an opponent for 2 totally different groups within the competitors: Darren Bent (Sunderland, Aston Villa) and Andy Carroll (Newcastle, Liverpool) in opposition to City.

City’s Erling Haaland has scored seven targets in 4 appearances in opposition to Burnley in all competitions. His minutes-per-goal of 1 each 36 minutes in opposition to the Clarets is his second-best at City, behind his one each 26 minutes in opposition to Luton (6 targets in 158 minutes).

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Be at City’s FA Cup semi-final!

Pep Guardiola’s sensible Blues are on the hunt for but extra silverware beneath Wembley’s well-known arch.

We return to the nationwide stadium on Saturday 25 April in a 17:15 (UK) kick-off for our FA Cup semi-final with Southampton.

And Members may be there with costs ranging from £30 for adults and £20 for U18s and over 65s.

As we’ve seen with different latest Wembley visits, it’s an event to not be missed!