Manchester City will look to stay in the Premier League title race when they travel to Bournemouth on Tuesday evening.
Pep Guardiola’s side have recovered well from their 3-3 draw at Everton, winning both their league games 3-0 against Brentford and Crystal Palace, before beating Chelsea 1-0 in the FA Cup final. However, they still trail leaders Arsenal by two points with two games to go, with the Gunners hosting Burnley a night earlier.
Man City predicted lineup vs Bournemouth
Man City predicted XI (4-2-3-1): Donnarumma; Nunes, Khusanov, Guehi, O’Reilly; Rodri, Silva; Semenyo, Cherki, Doku; Haaland.
Guardiola made a couple of surprise changes for the FA Cup final at the weekend, most notably playing Omar Marmoush alongside Erling Haaland for the first half.
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However, it’s hard to see Pep doing that again here, with Man City’s Premier League title and domestic treble hopes on the line.
Rayan Cherki is likely to come back into the starting line-up on the South Coast, joining the likes of Haaland, Antoine Semenyo and the in-form Jeremy Doku in a terrifying forward line.
Nico O’Reilly will be keen to keep his place at left-back after another strong showing at Wembley, despite Josko Gvardiol clocking 58 minutes in Man City’s 3-0 win over Crystal Palace in their last Premier League outing.
Gianluigi Donnarumma will return between the sticks in place of James Trafford.
Man City team news vs Bournemouth
Rodri was Man City’s only fitness doubt ahead of the FA Cup final, but the Spaniard came through 65 minutes unscathed before being rested with the introduction of Mateo Kovacic.
With that in mind, Guardiola should have a full-strength squad to pick from at the Vitality Stadium.
‘No time’ for Man City to celebrate FA Cup triumph
Given the ups and downs Man City have endured this season, it’s remarkable that they’ve already secured a domestic cup double, which may yet turn into the second domestic treble of Guardiola’s reign.
However, there is absolutely no time for the Cityzens to celebrate their eighth FA Cup triumph, with such a short turnaround before this game.
To that end, Guardiola says he hasn’t even allowed ‘one beer’ in celebration of lifting the famous old trophy. Instead, celebrations are being held back until after the final game of the Premier League campaign alongside the women’s side — who recently secured the WSL title — whether it be two or three trophies they show off.
“Home [now] – not even one beer,” said Guardiola. “Next Monday after Aston Villa, we’re going to celebrate it with the women’s team. The club said that to me [with] some parade in Manchester because we must celebrate with both teams.
“There is no time [to celebrate]. Chelsea had seven days to prepare for the final, we had three days and yesterday [Friday] was a nightmare. We spent six hours getting from the city to here. The trains are a little bit of a problem in this country.”