Seventh place rivals West Ham host Chelsea while Tottenham travel to Old Trafford to face Manchester United.
If there was ever going to be a better time to record an away win, it is on Saturday against Everton.
Everton have had a weary week and this could be the perfect chance for City to find that elusive win which would edge them closer to the Europa League.
Vital Quotes:
Mark Hughes said ahead of Saturday’s game: ‘Everton have a fantastic work ethic. It strikes you every time you watch them play but the technical ability in that group is sometimes underestimated.’
Hughes will be hoping City can unsettle Everton as West Brom tried to do against City, stating: ‘Everton had a high-profile game last weekend and another one in midweek it can eventually take an edge off your play.
‘It would be nice to think we could capitalise on that because we definitely need to improve our away form.’
Everton FC Team News:
£19m Brazilian striker Jo is ineligible to play for Everton against Manchester City due to terms in his loan contract.
Marouane Fellaini was ruled out against Chelsea due to injury and will face a late medical to see if he will play or not.
Player to watch: Tim Cahill
Tim Cahill is the Everton’s leading Premier League goal scorer this season, with eight goals to his name.
His aerial thread is something City will need to deal with carefully as we have been truly awful at set-pieces this season.
Manchester City FC Team News:
Manchester City will be without Welsh striker Craig Bellamy, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Pablo Zabaleta while Nigel de Jong is also expected to miss out with a thigh injury.
Micah Richards is expected to slot back into the right-back position for Zabaleta.
Player to watch: Nedum Onuoha
Nedum has been outstanding on his return to center-back after an injury plagued start to the season ruled him out of Mark Hughes’ plans.
Onuoha will have to be at his best against a physical Everton side and will need to practice his headers if he is to get anywhere near those dangerous crosses ahead of the likes of Fellaini and Cahill.
Match Facts & Stats
This game will be played on David Moyes’ 46th birthday. Happy Birthday!
City captain Richard Dunne will be stepping out onto the pitch to make his 350th career league appearance for Everton and Manchester City.
Goodison Park is the world’s first purpose built football stadium and has a capacity of 40,158.
Ref Watch:
Alan Wiley oversees this game and has been somewhat of a lucky talisman for us. City have romped to a 6-0 demolition of Pompey and a 3-0 thrashing of Arsenal under his watch.
The Stafforshire referee has taken charge of 23 games and shown 66 yellows and two reds (including Vidic!).
Match Prediction:
This game is a massive game for City and could be the turning point to reaching Europe. Everton have played a fair few games over the week but City are still injury plagued and it will be hard to see us beating them. For some reason we always mess up when we have a chance to do well (e.g. Fowler missing his penalty). Unfortunately I think Everton will win it. Everton 2-0 MCFC.
Next Fixtures:
Home to Blackburn on Saturday May 2nd 2009 at 3pm.