Manchester City welcome Arsenal to the Etihad Stadium in Friday’s FA Cup fourth-round clash and Pep Guardiola has a difficult decision to make in defence.
The City manager has gone with a three-man backline of late, starting John Stones and Manuel Akanji alongside Kyle Walker, Aymeric Laporte or Nathan Ake, but he might have to pick one and drop the other if he reverts to a four-man defence.
Ruben Dias hasn’t long returned from a hamstring injury, amassing just one minute of playing time since early November, so it’s hard to see him starting against Arsenal.
Stones has made 17 appearances in all competitions this season, playing a full 90 minutes in right of City’s last nine Premier League outings.
He’s barely been used in domestic cups, however, with the 28-year-old being an unused substitute in City’s EFL Cup win over Chelsea (September 11), getting 29 minutes from the bench in the EFL Cup win over Liverpool (December 22), being an unused substitute in the FA Cup third-round win over Chelsea (January 8) and being left out of the matchday squad in the EFL Cup defeat to Southampton (January 11).
As for Akanji, he’s made 21 appearances this campaign and played in 14 consecutive league games since joining. He was an unused substitute in the EFL Cup win over Chelsea, played an hour in the EFL Cup win over Liverpool, played a full 90 minutes in the FA Cup win over Chelsea and played 45 minutes in the EFL Cup defeat to Southampton.
Akanji has played more in cup competitions than Stones, but the latter has been in better form, so time will tell who gets the nod.
There is the possibility Guardiola goes for the pair in a three-man backline too, having done so for their last two league games, but it would be the first time this season that he’s done it for a domestic cup clash.
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