After securing their place at Wembley in the Capital One Cup Final during the week, Manuel Pellegrini takes his squad to Newcastle United in a return to league action. The Blues will be keen to maintain their title challenge with a win, especially with Chelsea winning on Saturday to send the Manchester side down to third. Whilst City often come away from this fixture with a win, Alan Pardew will be keen to add the visitors’ scalp to his collection this season, with also includes Manchester United and Chelsea.
A win at St James’ Park would send The Citizens back to the top of the Premier League table, ahead of Arsenal’s visit to Aston Villa on Monday night. With many now tipping City as their title favourites following two very good months for the blue half of Manchester, Newcastle’s visitors will be keen to assert themselves as title favourites. However, a Toon side re-invigorated since their derby loss at Sunderland could very easily cause some problems for Manuel Pellegrini’s team.
These sides have already met twice this season, with The Blues coming away victors on both occasions. The pair played each other in the opening game of the league season at the Etihad Stadium, with the hosts coming away with a 4-0 victory in which Edin Džeko starred. The two teams also played each other at St James’ in the Capital One Cup, where City were able to net twice in extra-time to come away with a respectable if lengthy 2-0 win.
Manchester City are set to welcome three players – Yaya Touré, Jesús Navas and Micah Richards – back into the squad after they all recovered from respective injuries. This would significantly cut down The Blues’ injury list, although there are still several players definitely out of Sunday’s clash. Sergio Agüero and Stevan Jovetić are thought to still be out, with next weekend’s home game against Cardiff City a more realistic return date. Meanwhile, Jack Rodwell and John Guidetti are both out with hamstring and knee injuries respectively.
Meanwhile, Newcastle United could have an almost fully-fit squad for the game. Davide Santon is expected to have a late fitness test, whilst Tim Krul, Fabricio Coloccini and Yohan Cabaye are all thought to be fit and raring to go ahead of the clash. These returns will be a huge boost to Alan Pardew. Ryan Taylor remains on the long-term injury list, with an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
Both sides will be keen to get a result from Sunday’s televised game, in order to boost their challenge for their respective objectives for the season. Newcastle want to assure their mid-table spot just behind Manchester United; three points in the game would leave The Toon on 36 points, very close to safety. Meanwhile, the away side want to boost their league title push, and a win would send them top – for 24 hours, at least.
