How Man City should line up vs Newcastle in the Premier League

After Arsenal's win in midweek, both Manchester City and the Gunners are level on games played in the title race, and the Blues now find themselves five points off the top.

They can reduce that to two points - for an hour or two at least - when they welcome Newcastle to the Etihad on Saturday lunchtime. The two sides shared an entertaining 3-3 draw at St James' Park earlier in the season, and Pep Guardiola has regularly referred to Newcastle as outside title challengers.

Guardiola will hope to welcome back Aymeric Laporte after illness and John Stones after injury, giving him potentially a fully-fit squad to choose from. City made some changes at Bristol City in the week in the FA Cup, so the likes of Kyle Walker, Ilkay Gundogan, Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland could all return.

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Read how our writers think City should line up below and use the interactive team selector to pick your best starting XI to face Newcastle:

Guardiola referenced Newcastle's threat from set-pieces ahead of this game and remembers well the danger that their pacy forwards caused in the return fixture, so it is unlikely to be a match where he can go in without a left-back. Nathan Ake earns the spot, while Kyle Walker is probably preferred to Rico Lewis for similar reasons.

Ilkay Gundogan did not play in midweek and can come in to rotate for Bernardo Silva, with Kevin De Bruyne finishing strongly at Bristol City.

The big question is which two of the three options Guardiola has will start on the wings, and as good as Phil Foden has played recently Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez offer the level of control that City would want against this type of opposition.

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