Manchester City have a quick turnaround in Premier League fixtures as they make the trip to Goodison Park to take on Everton on Wednesday night, aiming to maintain the pressure on league leaders Liverpool.
The champions revived their title hopes with a 3-1 win over Arsenal at the weekend and now have this re-arranged trip to Merseyside to prepare for.
Everton
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Marco Silva, the short-term manager brought in for a long-term project at Goodison Park, is growing under more and more pressure following a poor run of form.
The Toffees last won back-to-back league matches in October and have picked up all three points in just five of 16 games since then, while also crashing out of the FA Cup at the hands of Championship side Millwall during that run.
Despite boasting a squad crammed full of talented players, 10 of whom cost more than £20m to sign, Everton continue to struggle when it comes to breaking the glass ceiling of the top six.
Even the battle to be crowned best of the rest is proving difficult this term as, following Saturday's 3-1 home loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers, Everton now find themselves ninth in the Premier League and five points adrift of their seventh-placed opponents.
Everton have at least climbed a few places since majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri warned Silva that the club's position "is just not good enough" a month ago, but a run of five defeats in eight matches in all competition has hardly been enough to lift the weight off the manager's shoulders.
Silva's side have won just one of their nine Premier League games this season against teams starting the day higher than them in the table - losing the last five in a row - which does not make good reading ahead of Wednesday's showdown with City.
Once again out of the domestic cup competitions at an early stage, and with a Europa League spot out of the question, Everton now have 13 games to climb as high up the table as possible.
A frustrating inability to defend set pieces - something Silva has carried with him to Goodison Park from his spells at Hull City and Watford - must be rectified, but that is just one of the many problems plaguing Everton right now.
Should defeat in midweek be followed up by another loss next weekend, away to Silva's former club Watford, the Toffees' ambitious owners will have a big decision to make.
Recent form in Premier League: LLWLWL
Recent form (all competitions): WWLLWL
Manchester City
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Man City's shock 2-1 loss to Newcastle United last week can now be considered a minor blip and nothing else, having followed up that setback in the North-East with a comfortable win against Arsenal on Sunday.
The Citizens took twice as long to open the scoring against the Gunners as they did in their defeat to Newcastle, with Sergio Aguero taking all of 46 seconds to find a way past Bernd Leno.
Pep Guardiola will be concerned by his side's latest post-opening game lull, though, having been pegged back by the Gunners in the same way that they were against the Magpies five days beforehand.
City also struggled to push on in December's defeats to Crystal Palace and Leicester City, while also failing to hit top gear in wins over Southampton, Huddersfield Town and Everton in the reverse meeting, which could well come down to a motivational issue.
The Citizens improved in the second half against Arsenal and eased their way to victory in the end, however, making it eight wins from nine matches in 2019. Thirty-four goals have been scored across those fixtures and just four conceded.
The gap on Liverpool has now been reduced to two points ahead of the Reds' visit to West Ham United on Monday night. By virtue of the fixture list, with this match being rearranged due to City's participation in the EFL Cup final later this month, the Citizens could move to the top of the table by the end of the week.
That would be some turnaround considering they could have fallen 10 points adrift of their opponents last month, yet the title is still very much Liverpool's to lose.
Guardiola admitted after the Arsenal win that his side face a "tough" few days, as they follow up this trip to Everton with a home match against Chelsea on Sunday. February can so often be a defining month in the Premier League, and any further slip up not will likely prove costly.
Recent form in Premier League: WWWWLW
Recent form (all competitions): WWWWLW
Team News
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The quick turnaround in games, with this trip to Goodison Park sandwiched by home games against Arsenal and Chelsea, means that Guardiola is expected to make some changes.
Leroy Sane was left on the bench for Sunday's win over the Gunners and Riyad Mahrez got just a couple of minutes at the end, so both men are in line to return to the starting lineup here.
Another surprising omission at the weekend was John Stones, who was only included among the subs as Guardiola instead went with Fernandinho alongside Nicolas Otamendi in central defence and shifted Aymeric Laporte to left-back.
City will be desperate to get Benjamin Mendy back up and running in that troublesome position, but he has now missed three matches since making his latest return so it may well be down to one of Fabian Delph or Oleksandr Zinchenko to plug the gap.
In terms of the hosts, Leighton Baines conceded an early penalty against Wolves before being taken off injured, but his absence coincides with Lucas Digne's return from a one-match ban.
Idrissa Gueye has sat out a couple of matches because of injury, as well as uncertainty over his future, and it remains to be seen if he will be recalled to the side on Wednesday or given another few days to rest.
Elsewhere, Yerry Mina is carrying an injury and Phil Jagielka is also still on the sidelines, so Michael Keane is expected to partner Kurt Zouma in the heart of defence.
Everton possible starting lineup:
Pickford; Coleman, Keane, Zouma, Digne; Davies, Gomes; Bernard, Sigurdsson, Richarlison; Calvert-Lewin
Manchester City possible starting lineup:
Ederson; Walker, Stones, Laporte, Delph; Bernardo, Fernandinho, D.Silva; Mahrez, Aguero, Sane
Head To Head
Man City beat Everton 3-1 in the reverse fixture two months ago through a couple of Gabriel Jesus strikes and one from Raheem Sterling.
That made it nine home matches in a row without defeat to the Toffees, but it has been a different story at Goodison Park, where the Merseysiders have won two of the last three meetings in all competitions.
Everton won 4-0 there in January 2017 to inflict a heaviest-ever league defeat on Guardiola, but the Citizens won 3-1 in this corresponding fixture last season en route to racking up 100 points.
We say: Everton 0-2 Manchester City
Man City have the chance to put Liverpool under even more pressure at the top of the table, or even possibly take hold of top spot themselves, depending on the Reds' result against West Ham on Monday. The Citizens have won nine of their last 10 matches and they should extend that run in midweek against an inconsistent Everton side.
Daniel Lewis
