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By the way, Niall McVeigh is providing the updates on the rest of the games from his chair.
News from elsewhere, relevant to City: Julian Alvarez – remember him? – has scored twice for Atletico at Sparta Prague. They replaced him with…Savinho?
Krishna gets in touch: “Hello John (or is it Scott under a new pseudonym?)
“Lose to Spurs. Then lose to Arne’s successor. And finally lose to Arne himself. Certainly Pep would not like such orderly things, a narrow win today followed by a draw this weekend is what I predict.”
Yes, it is John. Standing in for the great man.
The headlines: De Bruyne still on the bench, and so is Gimenez. Walker dropped, as is Savinho.
In: Nathan Ake, Matheus Nunes and Jack Grealish. Out: Walker, Savinho and John Stones, who isn’t in the squad at all.
The teams are in
Man City: Ederson, Lewis, Akanji, Ake, Gvardiol, Silva, Gundogan, Matheus Luiz, Foden, Haaland, Grealish. Subs: Ortega, Carson, Walker, Dias, De Bruyne, Savio, Wright, Simpson-Pusey, O’Reilly, McAtee, Wilson-Esbrand.
Feyenoord: Wellenreuther, Nieuwkoop, Trauner, Hancko, Smal, Hwang, Milambo, Timber, Hadj Moussa, Carranza, Igor Paixao. Subs: Bijlow, Ka, Beelen, Zerrouki, Gonzalez, Ivanusec, Mitchell, Zechel, Gimenez, Lotomba, Redmond.
Referee: Radu Petrescu (Romania)
As ever, Jonathan Wilson has been thinking deeply against this unexpected malaise.
And yet something is different. According to Opta, City have had the third-easiest run of fixtures of any club from the start of this Premier League season, yet if they lose at Anfield next week (and Liverpool are the side Guardiola has lost to second-most often) they will be 11 points behind the leaders. The aura has gone; opponents are sensing blood in the water. This is like Chelsea in 2015-16, or Manchester United under David Moyes, or Liverpool in the early 1990s. Sides no longer face them seeking merely to avoid embarrassment; they believe there is a chance of a notable result.
City aren’t old, OK? Not according to Pep, that is.
Missing for City: Oscar Bobb, Ruben Dias, Mateo Kovacic and, of course, Rodri.
That the rest look tired is also a big problem.
For Feyenoord: Santiago Gimenez will be a big miss, and he’s doubtful with a thigh injury.
Brian Priske, the Feyenoord coach, Arne Slot’s successor on City: “For me they are still one of the best teams in the world, a world-class team. We’ve seen a lot of their games and, for example, at the weekend against Spurs they were really unlucky. We know we have to play a perfect match to get a positive result, especially defensively.
More Pep: “In this situation we have to be more direct in our principles. Don’t change much, in fact less than ever. One day we’re going to win a game and our mind will be clear. I hope it will be [against Feyenoord], if not Sunday [against Liverpool]. But the desire is there to change it and we’re going to try.”
Does this mean they *are* going direct?
And Kevin De Bruyne: “It has been a bit chaotic. I have seen so many people passed around the medical area. Seeing who is playing, who is not, people who shouldn’t be playing but did with an injury; in these games we were all over the place. Everyone is down but we have to move on.”
Some Pep quotes from his press conference: “I still have the feeling that this season we will still do very good things. I don’t give up and I have a feeling we will be there. We will congratulate the team that takes our crown because they deserve it, not because we gave it to them. [When] you are defending a legacy, tradition, success it is so difficult to handle.”
Preamble
It couldn’t be six in a row, could it? Surely this is the night when the rots stops, and Manchester City recover their footing. Feyenoord are only fourth in the Eredivisie and 21st in the Champions League enormotable. They couldn’t, could they? It’s at the Etihad but it’s also uncharted territory for Pep Guardiola. Will he ask his team to go tight, play the percentages? That’s not the usual way but that’s the orthodox way out of such fluxes. But then again, nothing about Pep or City is ordinary.
Join me for an 8pm GMT kick-off.
