Manchester City have been handed a huge blow in their Premier League title race with Arsenal after it was confirmed Erling Haaland would miss today's game with Liverpool.
The striker has scored 42 goals in all competitions since his summer signing from Borussia Dortmund. Haaland is on course to break the Premier League goalscoring record with 28 goals in just 26 games.
However, after being forced to withdraw from the Norway national team, Haaland has been left out of Pep Guardiola's squad for their clash with Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium.
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World Cup winner Julian Alvarez will lead the line against Liverpool in his place. Speaking to BT Sport about the 22-year-old, Guardiola said: " He’s much, much better, but not for today. He didn’t feel good, no risk."
Phil Foden is also excluded from the Citizens squad after undergoing surgery to have his appendix removed throughout the international break whilst Bernardo Silva is only fit enough for the bench. "Bernardo had a virus after his Portugal trip, training just yesterday," Guardiola explained.
"I spoke with him, he is not able to play 90 minutes - he and Phil - but it happens, so probably the day after the game here against Burnley he didn’t feel good - okay, Phil for the surgery, but it’s happened. In the season these kind of things happen."
Haaland's absence will come as a huge blow to City in their task of catching the Gunners up. Mikel Arteta's side hold an eight-point advantage over Man City, though Guardiola's side do have a crucial game-in-hand to play.
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