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City make three changes for Aston Villa
John Edwards
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Joao Cancelo, Rodrigo and Phil Foden return to the Manchester City starting line-up to face Aston Villa.
TEAMS
ASTON VILLA: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Targett, McGinn, Luiz, Traore, Grealish, Barkley, Watkins.
SUBS: Heaton, Taylor, Guilbert, Engels, Elmohamady, Nakamba, Ramsey, El Ghazi, Davis.
WATCH: Defensive focus proving key for City, says Guardiola
FORMATION AND SQUAD NOTES
With Jesus amongst the substitutes, the central position in the forward line is the one position where we will have to wait until kick-off to find out who starts there.
Bernardo Silva, Raheem Sterling and Foden have all played there previously and could well interchange across the attacking trident throughout the game.
The Villa manager can at least take encouragement from the way that the home side have dealt with a similar outbreak of coronavirus cases that threatened to derail City s season.
Guardiola s men were forced to call off their game at Everton on December 28 and closed their training ground for three days before it was reopened after a deep clean.
Although all cases have not been confirmed, the number of first-team players to test positive runs into double figures, with Kyle Walker, Gabriel Jesus, Ederson, Ferran Torres and Ilkay Gundogan among those forced to sit out games this season.
Guardiola has been careful with his players, with Walker and Jesus yet to play in consecutive matches since coming out of quarantine.
Manchester City breaks down Aston Villa s resistance to win tsn.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tsn.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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City dominated much of an entertaining encounter on a miserable evening but looked set to miss out on the chance to take over at the summit until Silva struck 11 minutes from time, albeit in contentious circumstances.
Villa boss Dean Smith was sent off for his protests after he felt Silva s goal should have been ruled out for offside against Rodri, who had won the ball back from Tyrone Mings.
Ilkay Gundogan s penalty sealed all three points to extend City s winning run to nine matches and put them top, although Manchester United can replace them when they face Fulham later on Wednesday.