Manchester City welcome Newcastle United to the Etihad Stadium in one of two Boxing Night Football matches live on BT Sport.
Should Southampton and Chelsea lose earlier in day plus Everton suffer defeat in the other late evening game at Sheffield United, Man City could rise to fourth with victory.
Newcastle meanwhile could temporarily go 11th if they take a win.
Team News
Kyle Walker and Gabriel Jesus will miss this match after the pair tested positive for Coronavirus following Tuesday’s Carabao Cup win at Arsenal.
Eric Garcia (knock) is also sidelined.
Newcastle could welcome Federico Fernandez back after he sat out their midweek Carabao Cup exit at Brentford due to fatigue.
Allan Saint-Maximin, Jamaal Lascelles, Javi Manquillo, Fabian Schar (all Coronavirus) plus Martin Dubravka (Achilles) remain ruled out.
Stat Attack
- Man City are unbeaten in five of their last six league meetings against Newcastle (W4, D1, L1).
- Newcastle are winless in their last five trips to the Etihad Stadium, scoring three goals and conceding 21 goals across those visits.
- City’s Raheem Sterling scored once in all three meetings against Newcastle last season across all competitions.
- No Argentinean Premier League player has won more aerial battles this season than the 22 battles won by Newcastle’s Federico Fernandez.
- No Man City player has had more touches on the ball this season than Rodri with 1,224 in 13 league appearances.
- City are unbeaten in their last five Boxing Day home matches dating back to 2007-08 season (W4, D1).
- Newcastle have conceded four goals in each of their last three away Boxing Day trips (L3), of which two of those defeats came against Liverpool.
Prediction
Finishing has often been Man City’s biggest issue this season because they’re doing everything right but are somehow often scraping smaller wins than what they deserve, although Tuesday’s clinical dominant play at Arsenal could well be a turning point if can translate that Cup performance into their league games.
Newcastle meanwhile just seemed lacklustre and set in their defensive ways because they really struggled to attack against Fulham and Brentford in the past week, which is a worry because City will be a tough task.
Either way, I don’t see Newcastle getting a win here because this feels like a simple question of how many goals will City score, although they have Everton on Monday evening so I can see Pep Guardiola settling once they find two or three goals to protect his key players.
Prediction: Manchester City 3-0 Newcastle United
Result: Manchester City 2-0 Newcastle United
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