Pep Guardiola's Manchester City will have a near-fully fit squad to face Arsenal on Wednesday night. The reigning champions have hit their stride in the past month and have won 10 of their last 11 games in all competitions, ramping up the pressure on Mikel Arteta.
With the gap currently at five points it is a game that will swing the pendulum one way or the other. Arsenal could end the day eight points ahead and with the title back in their hands or City can cut that down to two with another two games in hand left to play.
The Gunners also have the tougher fixture list in the final straight and know they will need to be near on perfect to go on to lift the trophy. There is an added blow as well, heading into the game without key defender William Saliba and with doubts over the fitness of Granit Xhaka.
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As for City, they are near to a clean bill of health, though they will be without key defender Nathan Ake - who was taken off against Bayern Munich earlier this month with a hamstring knock.
“Hopefully he can come back soon but for tomorrow he is out. I don’t know about Madrid,” said Guardiola. “Yeah [it’s a blow] but we will find the right player to do it,” he added. “I don’t have doubts about that, we’ll play with 11.”
As for Ake himself, he said: "I've had it before and it feels a little bit less to be honest, but you never know with these things, so we will do the ultrasounds and stuff tomorrow and then hopefully it's not too bad."
Injury expert Dr. Rajpal Brar has offered his own take, writing on Twitter: "Nathan Ake right hamstring injury. The timeline depends the severity & location of injury (near tendon typically longer).
"Typically grade 1 is 1-2 weeks, grade 2 is 3-6 weeks & grade 3 is 10+ weeks depending on surgery or not. Higher risk for high pace players/positions."
The Spanish boss has also been open about the fatigue of his side, especially in the lead-up to the game at Wembley on Saturday. "We are exhausted. I don't know how we recover to play against Sheffield United [in the FA Cup semi-final]. Now is a tough moment for the game on Saturday," he said at the time.
The result of this game won't decide the title though. "It's really important. Not decisive," he said. "A lot of tough games for both sides but we can't deny how important it is."
Elsewhere, Phil Foden returned for the first time in over four weeks at the weekend and will be in contention to play here as well.
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