Manchester City return to action on Saturday to tackle Newport County as they continue in their mission to win four trophies this season.
The Etihad outfits are in confident mood — heading into tomorrow’s game — after defeating the Blues 6-0 last weekend and they are expected to run riot against the League Two side.
Match preview
Newport County
The country’s fourth tier club currently occupy the 15th position in League Two standings and they are presently not in best form. Michael Flynn ‘s side have lost 12 matches since the start of the season and a promotion to League One seems impossible.
They beat Leicester City and Middlesbrough to get to this stage of the competition for the first time since 1949 but they now face great test against City who are 82 places above them.
Newport County will be hoping to continue their impressive home record when the Premier League Champions visit Rodney Parade stadium.
Manchester City
The Cityzens are in the race to win four trophies by the end of this campaign and they wouldn’t want to be complacent against the minnows.
Guardiola’s men are in Carabao cup final where they will face Chelsea later in the month. They are equally in Champions League round-16 stage and are at the top of Premier League table. A win against Newport County means they are a step closer to winning their first FA Cup glory under Guardiola’s tutelage.
Having scored 20 goals without conceding in the last three matches of the competition, the sky blues are tipped to score many goals against their upcoming opponents.
However, Guardiola must be very careful not to repeat last season’s misfortunes when they crash out of the competition at this stage against League One outfits Wigan Athletics.
Team News
Guardiola is expected to rest key members of his squad considering the quality of his Saturday’s opponents. Fernandinho, Aguero, Sterling and Kelvin Debruyne are likely to start from the bench, while youngsters such as Phil Foden and Eric Garcia could be given another opportunity to showcase their respective qualities.
Brazilian striker Gabriel Jesus and former Leicester City striker Riyad Mahrez are also set for a place in the Spaniard’s starting XI.
Vincent Kompany and Benjamin Mendy are both sidelined ahead of the encounter due to injury.
Newport County
It is yet to be seen if the duo of O’Brien and Joss Labadie would be fit for the clash after both players were sidelined in their shock defeat to MK on Tuesday.
Andrew Croft hasn’t returned from his calf injury, hence, he will play no part in tomorrow’s game. Meanwhile, summer signing Ade Azeez is cup-tied.
Probable Line-up
Newport (3-5-2 formation)
Day; Franks, Demetriou, O’Brien; Wilmot, Bakinson, Labadie, Bennett, Butler; Amond, Matt
Manchester City ( 4-3-3 formation)
Ederson; Danilo, Otamendi, Garcia, Zinchenko; De
Bruyne, Gundogan, Foden; Mahrez, Jesus, Sane
Prediction
For the sake of the bad-looking pitch, Manchester City may find it difficult to score plenty of goals. Nonetheless, we tip them to score at least four goals.