Man City – Everton

Josep Guardiola’s Manchester City is not unbeaten in the Premier League anymore, after losing with 2-0 its visit to Tottenham in the last round of the league before the international break. It was the first loss for Guardiola in English football, but despite of this Manchester City remained on the top of the league with 18 points won from the first seven games.

Now City are going to meet another very strong team in the face of Everton. The two teams will meet at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester and everything leads to an interesting and very good match between two solid teams.

It’s interesting to follow the managerial duel between Pep Guardiola and Everton’s Ronald Koeman. The two football legends were teammates at Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona and it’s safe to say that they were learning to be managers from the same man. Now they will test their skills against each other and it’s going to be a beautiful duel.

Both managers have some problems with key players being injured. Kevin de Bruyne, Vincent Kompany and Bacary Sagna are out of Pep Guardiola’s plans for the game, while Sergio Aguero and Raheem Sterling came back injured after the international break. We still don’t know if they will feature in the game or not.

The same could be said about Everton’s top striker Romelu Lukaku, who also came back with an injury after his international duty for Belgium. Leighton Baines, James McCarthy and Darron Gibson remain sidelined for the club from Liverpool. But arguably Ronald Koeman is going to be most concerned about Romelu Lukaku, who is a key player for the team since the start of the season. He’s doubtful for the game at Etihad Stadium, so we should wait and see if he is going to be able to play.