Toure and Aguero ruled out as City's injury woes continue
Stoke City vs Manchester City
Date: 12.45pm, Saturday 5th December 2015
Venue: Britannia Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent
Referee: Martin Atkinson Assistants: M Mullarkey, S Child Fourth Official: R East
Odds: Stoke 9/2, Draw 3/1, City 4/6
Tickets: Sold out
TV: BT Sport
Stoke City
Manager: Mark Hughes
Squad (from): Butland, Haugaard, Bardsley, Cameron, Johnson, Muniesa, Pieters, Shawcross, Teixeira, Wilson, Wollscheid, Adam, Afellay, Ireland, Moha, Shaqiri, Shenton, Sidwell, Van Ginkel, Whelan, Arnautovic, Bojan, Crouch, Diouf, Joselu, Odemwingie, Walters.
Injured: Odemwingie, Given, Muniesa
Doubtful: Crouch
Suspended: None
Form guide: LWWDLW
Manchester City
Manager: Manuel Pellegrini
Squad (from): Caballero, Hart, Wright, Clichy, Demichelis, Kolarov, Otamendi, Sagna, De Bruyne, Delph, Fernandinho, Fernando, Navas, Silva, Sterling, Bony, Iheanacho
Injured: Nasri, Kompany, Zabaleta, Aguero, Toure, Roberts
Doubtful: None
Suspended: Mangala
Form guide: WLDWDW
City's injury woes continue, as Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero join Vincent Kompany, Samie Nasri and Pablo Zabaleta on the sidelines. Youngster Patrick Roberts has also been ruled out, whilst Eliaquim Mangala is suspended after picking up a fifth yellow card of the season in the midweek win against Hull.
Manager Manuel Pellegrini acknowledged that Stoke are a different team now under Mark Hughes, but is expecting a tough game at The Britannia Stadium.
“It’s important to be aggressive from the start against Stoke from the first minute. Especially in the first 15/20 minutes, they want to make the difference so it’s important to be good from the start.
“Last year they make a mix of styles – they try to not always play with high balls and just with crosses.
“They try to have more possession – by the characteristics of their players they still try to score with crosses but it’s a mix now.
“It will be a tough against an important team.”
City's last away game at The Britannia ended in 4-1 victory for the Blues, with goals from Sergio Aguero (2), James Milner and Samir Nasri. Overall City have won 47 of the 107 games played against Stoke, with 24 draws and 36 defeats.
Prediction: Stoke 1 City 1