Manchester City vs Leeds United

1. Manchester City vs Leeds United: Match Preview | Premier League 2021/22 Manchester City are preparing to face an injury-hit Leeds United side who will be looking for only their 4th win this season. Pep Guardiola’s men have won six league games on the bounce and lead the Premier League by one point. Last time out, they needed a penalty against a 10 men Wolves side. The blue side from Manchester will have to utilize their impressive squad depth in this difficult December period. In contrast, Leeds united premiere league haven’t had the best of starts to this campaign. They are languishing in 15th place and the fixtures do not look kind. They were hit by constant injuries throughout the season which has forced Bielsa to rotate heavily almost every game. A win at the Etihad seems like a tough task but Leeds will take heart from the fact they defeated City at this stadium last time out. Stuart Dallas’ injury- time winner will bring back fond memories to the Leeds fans and they’ll hope the team can repeat it. Manchester City will be without Joao Cancelo as the defender picked up his 5th yellow card of the season against Wolves and is serving a one- match ban. Ferran Torres is a long term absentee and is expected to be back during the New Year period. Pep Guardiola mentioned in the post- match interview that Ilkay Gundogan is struggling “a lot” with back problems, but has confirmed that the German is in contention against Leeds. Phil Foden and Nathan Ake also had injury troubles against Leipzig but they made the bench against Wolves and the former is expected to start this game. Kyle Walker is also expected to take the place of Cancelo and Zinchenko should continue at left-back.

2. Leeds united premiere league have host of injury problems. Partick Bamford who made his return against Brentford has suffered an injury setback again and will miss this game. Kalvin Phillps and Liam Cooper are also out with hamstring while Rodrigo is also sidelined with heel pain. Robin Koch also dealing with illness, and Pascal Struijk is out with a knee trouble. Bielsa will hope Raphinha can inspire again to achieve anything other than a defeat against City.