Bernardo Silva and Raheem Sterling return - Man City predicted line up vs Brentford

Pep Guardiola is contemplating whether to stick or twist for the Premier League game against Brentford.

Having swept aside Championship opponents Fulham at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday afternoon, the champions return to their main order of business at the same venue on Wednesday night (7.45pm).

Given that second-placed Liverpool are in action 24 hours later, victory over Brentford would see City move a huge 12 points clear at the summit - although in any scenario they would have played two more matches than the Reds.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Guardiola confirmed Gabriel Jesus and Academy starlet Cole Palmer are still unavailable for selection.

Other than those two absentees, though, the Spaniard has a clean bill of health.

He said: "Except from Gabriel, the rest are fit. Cole as well is out. Soon he [Jesus] will be ready. I spoke with him this morning and he feels good, but he is not perfect. A few niggles, muscular. We have to be careful."

Guardiola opted to rotate Ederson, Ruben Dias, Rodri, Bernardo Silva and Raheem Sterling against Fulham.

Naturally, that quintet will come back into contention for the Brentford game, but City also find themselves having to fulfil three important fixtures inside seven days.

Who would you start against Brentford? Have your say in the comments section below.

Starting with the Londoners, the Premier League table-toppers meet Norwich City (A) on Saturday afternoon and it will be followed up by the first leg of the Champions League last-16 showdown with Sporting Lisbon - scheduled for next Tuesday night in Portugal.

Man City predicted line-up vs Brentford (4-3-3): Ederson; Walker, Dias, Laporte, Cancelo; Bernardo, Rodri, de Bruyne; Sterling, Grealish, Foden.