Toffees hope to be sticky opposition for Pep Guardiola’s City

Everton host Manchester City tomorrow night with the hosts stuck in a catch 22 as winning could aid biggest rivals Liverpool in their purist for their first title since 1990. On the other hand Marco Silva’s men will not want to lose as they battle with Wolverhampton Wanderers for seventh place in the league.

The Liverpool based side will be hoping to put on a display similar to that just over two years ago at Goodison Park, where they hammered City 4-0. However they haven’t beaten Guardiola’s side in the last three games, with the champions winning 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium back in December, a double from Gabriel Jesus saw off the competition.

No matter the result the hosts are in a battle to finish in the best position behind the so called ‘big six’ , this would become harder if they fail to beat City after they lost to Wolves at the weekend, one of the sides they battle with for that seventh place.

There is a battle for the title between the away side and Liverpool with every result being increasingly important, Guardiola’s side still have to face rivals Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur while still being in every competition possible.

Marco Silva’s men have struggled recently losing to Wolves and Southampton while have being knocked out of the FA Cup by Championship side Millwall. It’s not been all doom and gloom for the Premier League side as they have beaten Huddersfield and Bournemouth.

City have only lost one game in their last ten and that was a shock result away at Newcastle. Since then they overcame the challenge of Arsenal  to return to winning ways in the league. The Citizens recently confirmed their place in the final of the Carabao Cup by beating Burton Albion 10-0 on aggregate.

Silva had this to say on how to beat Manchester City:

“It will be really tough. In my opinion that team play the best football in the Premier League even if in some away games they didn’t achieve the results.

“They are really solid with strong character. They will play with 70-80% of the ball. We have to be ready to suffer and be solid in these types of moments.

“We have to be ambitious to try and make some damage on them.”

Guardiola expressed the possibility of winning against Silva’s side:

“Goodison Park is always a tough game for us.”

“We’ll go there, try and make a good performance and win the game and, of course, we have the chance because Liverpool don’t play to go top.”

The Toffees are without three of their defenders as Yerry Mina, Leighton Baines and Phil Jagielka are all sidelined while Lucas Digne and Idrissa Gueye both are likely to feature for Silva’s side.

Digne was suspended and missed their 3-1 loss to Wolves while Gueye has recovered from a groin problem.

For City, Vincent Kompany is still out with a muscle injury while there could be some good news for the away side with full-back Benjamin Mendy all but recovered from his knee injury.