Manchester City hope to make it consecutive wins in the Premier League when they travel to face Leicester City on Saturday afternoon, but Chris Sutton believes they could be in for a difficult game.
Leicester are 15 places and 15 points worse off than Pep Guardiola’s men in the table, but they’re coming off the back of two wins and a draw from their last three and face a Man City side without a win in their last three away games in all competitions.
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Sutton wrote in his BBC Sport predictions: ‘This is tricky because I don’t know if Erling Haaland will be fit to play. Without him, Manchester City will have to do things differently.
‘Leicester have not only had the week off, they are looking a lot better defensively and also have the threat of James Maddison and Harvey Barnes. This feels like it will be closer than it might have been a couple of weeks ago, but Manchester City should still have too much quality for the Foxes.’
Haaland has scored 22 goals with three assists from 16 games in all competitions this season, so City can’t afford to lose him. They’ve failed to score on their last three away games and face a Leicester side boasting consecutive clean sheets in the league.
Without Haaland, Pep Guardiola will have to rely on Julian Alvarez to lead the line. The 22-year-old underwhelmed in Tuesday’s 0-0 draw with Borussia Dortmund, but he has scored four goals in 564 minutes of football this season, so he knows where the back of the net is.
In other news, here’s a predicted Man City XI v Leicester City
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