Man City v Leicester team news: Ake + Akanji benched

The next match of Gameweek 31 takes place at the Etihad Stadium, where Manchester City host Leicester City in the 17:30 GMT kick-off.

It’s a clash of contrasting fortunes, as Pep Guardiola’s champions are on five successive victories in their quest to chase down Arsenal but the freefalling Foxes are winless in eight and deep in relegation trouble.

This sits in-between both Champions League quarter-finals with Bayern Munich, so Guardiola has made three changes to the line-up from last Saturday’s 4-1 win at Southampton.

There are starts for Erling Haaland (£12.2m), Jack Grealish (£7.2m), Kevin De Bruyne (£12.1m) and former Leicester wizard Riyad Mahrez (£7.3m), with places on the bench for Nathan Ake (£5.1m) and Manuel Akanji (£5.0m).

Furthermore, midfielder Bernardo Silva (£6.7m) comes in for Ilkay Gundogan (£7.3m). An appendix injury keeps Phil Foden (£8.0m) away from proceedings.

For his first match in charge, Dean Smith has made four changes to the Leicester line-up. Youri Tielemans (£6.1m) is back from an ankle problem and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£4.9m) returns from suspension, as Caglar Soyuncu (£4.2m) and Harry Souttar (£4.5m) are given the nod.

Without a clean sheet since Gameweek 16, it looks like the Foxes have used Harvey Barnes‘ (£6.7m) injury to revert to a back five.

James Maddison (£8.1m) starts, with Daniel Iversen (£3.8m) still preferred in goal.

GAMEWEEK 31 LINE-UPS

Manchester City XI: Ederson; Walker, Stones, Dias, Laporte; Rodri, De Bruyne, Bernardo; Mahrez, Haaland, Grealish

Subs: Ortega, Ake, Akanji, Gomez, Lewis, Phillips, Gundogan, Palmer, Alvarez

Leicester City XI: Iversen; Castagne, Soyuncu, Souttar, Faes, Kristiansen; Tielemans, Dewsbury-Hall, Ndidi, Maddison; Vardy

Subs: Ward, Amartey, Thomas, Mendy, Praet, Marcal-Madivadua, Tete, Iheanacho, Daka

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