City look to return to winning ways as the travel to Bramall Lane

Manchester City will hope to make amends for Saturday when they face Sheffield United in the Premier League.

Fernandinho’s late own goal awarded Crystal Palace a point on Saturday. And following Liverpool’s 2-0 victory over Manchester United the following afternoon meant the Reds increased their lead over the Champions to 16 points, a lead that could be extended to 19 if Liverpool beat West Ham their game in hand.

Despite City’s hold on the Championship ebbing away. Pep Guardiola knows that there is still plenty to play for. His side are 90 minutes away from their third consecutive EFL Cup final, still have the FA Cup to compete in and have a chance of winning the Champions League.

However, if City is going to go all guns blazing in Europe, they will need to return to the form that blasted them to the League title in the previous two seasons, starting tomorrow night at Bramall Lane, home of Sheffield United.

The Blades are no walkover though. Despite being tipped for relegation, Chris Wilder’s men have proved everyone wrong. They currently lie in 7th place and picked up a deserved draw away at Arsenal at the weekend.

A win for Sheffield United would see them leapfrog United and Wolves in the table into 5th. They could see themselves three points behind 4th placed Chelsea if the Blues lose to Arsenal the same evening.

A win for the Citizens would take the gap between them and Champions’ elect, Liverpool to 13 points, who face Wolves on Thursday evening.

These two last met just 22 days ago at the Etihad. Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne’s second-half goals gave Manchester City a 2-0 win, which was Sheffield United’s first defeat away from home that season.

Team news

For Sheffield United – David McGoldrick the only concern for the South Yorkshire men as he has an ankle problem, but will have a late fitness test.

For Manchester City – Leroy Sane is still recovering from a knee injury sustained in the Charity Shied back in August, he is expected back in the next few weeks.

Aymeric Laporte is back in training following a knee injury he picked up at the start of the season and is close to a return to City, but it’s uncertain whether it will be tomorrow.

Defenders Benjamin Mendy has muscle fatigue and John Stones has a leg problem. Both will have late fitness tests.

Chris Wilder believes a first-class performance will be needed if his side is to win tomorrow:

“We’ll need to produce one of our best performances of the season to get a result, and our performance at their place last month was excellent – in and out of possession, we had a really good shape and we limited them to very little, which was pleasing.

“We know they will have the ball a lot but I like to think we can cause them a few problems going the other way, like we did at their place.”

Pep Guardiola believes form is pivotal between now and the end of the campaign:

“Our aim now is to finish second and for knockout games and all other competitions always you have to have something inside to keep going,” said Pep.

“You cannot play when you’re not running well in PL so have to maintain high standards.

“We have to accept the situation. We can’t deny Liverpool are extraordinary in terms of football and results, but every day I live thinking about what we can do better.

“I have the same opinion. Some games are good, we concede few, but that is difficult to solve and. we have to improve.

Head-to-head

Sheffield United wins: 38

Draws: 34

Manchester City wins: 50