Capable of giving his former right-hand man Mikel Arteta a significant boost in the Premier League title race, Pep Guardiola and Manchester City tussle with Arne Slot's Liverpool in Sunday's colossal clash at the Etihad.
The last two champions of England are separated by an enormous 17-point chasm in the top-flight rankings, but the stuttering holders are finally reverting to type at home, in a domestic sense at least.
Match preview
The five-peat dream may be in tatters, barring the most astonishing Premier League title comeback the country has ever witnessed, but Man City can at least try to take Liverpool down with them while in turn enhancing their prospects of a customary Champions League qualification.
A top-four finish in the Premier League is now City's only route to Europe's top table after Real Madrid won the latest battle in the long-running war, coming up trumps 6-3 on aggregate in their knockout round playoff as the mesmerising Kylian Mbappe claimed a second-leg hat-trick.
A premature exit from the Champions League means that City are now only fighting on the Premier League and FA Cup front for the rest of the term - as well as this summer's revamped Club World Cup - but Guardiola's crop are looking more like their old selves as far as the top flight is concerned.
While Mbappe took home the match ball in midweek, Omar Marmoush left with one of his own following last weekend's 4-0 decimation of top-four chasing Newcastle United, a result that has allowed Man City to cling onto fourth place before gameweek 26 gets underway.
The Citizens have now prevailed in each of their last three Premier League games in front of their own fans - scoring at least three goals on each occasion - and no team in the top flight can better their 24.7% conversion rate in 2025, up from a paltry 9.6% from August to December.
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Whisper it quietly, but the champions may have caught the challengers at the perfect time, as the first cracks have begun to appear for a hitherto irrepressible Liverpool side if their last four contests are anything to go by.
The Reds' 2-1 triumph over Wolverhampton Wanderers was not convincing by any stretch of the imagination, and a midweek trip to Aston Villa - where they had the chance to open up a 10-point gap over Arsenal - saw Slot's men only come away with a 2-2 draw thanks to a deflected Trent Alexander-Arnold leveller.
If Arsenal can slay London rivals West Ham United as expected, the Gunners will only be five points behind Liverpool on the same number of games before Slot's side clash with Man City, and they arrive at the Etihad boasting just the one victory from their last four contests in all tournaments.
The league leaders have also won just two of their last eight away games across all competitions and none of their last three, but the record at face value does not tell the entire story, as Slot's men are still yet to lose a Premier League away fixture in 2024-25 and have scored in all 14 such fixtures so far.
There were also few obstacles for Liverpool to overcome in their straightforward 2-0 home win over Man City earlier in the season, where Guardiola's six-finger gesture was the hot-button topic; that exact number also represents how many times Liverpool have done the double over the reigning Premier League champions, last doing so versus Chelsea in 2010-11.
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Hearts were in mouths when City talisman Erling Haaland jolted his knee in the dying embers of the win over Newcastle, and after he was restricted to a watching brief at the Bernabeu, Guardiola could not guarantee that he would be available for the weekend.
One man who will definitely not make the cut is John Stones, who might need surgery on the quadriceps injury he sustained just eight minutes into the midweek loss to Real Madrid, while Manuel Akanji (thigh), Oscar Bobb (calf) and Rodri (ACL) are still out.
Whether Haaland is given the green light to play or not, hat-trick hero Marmoush will expect to strut his stuff in the final third; further back, Ederson could become the first goalkeeper ever to register an assist in three straight Premier League appearances.
Absent from Liverpool's last two Premier League matches due to a knock, Cody Gakpo remains a serious doubt for the trip to Man City, which Joe Gomez (thigh) and Tyler Morton (shoulder) will also miss.
Slot is also "99.9%" sure that Conor Bradley will sit this one out after appearing to tweak his hamstring in the draw with Villa, but the visitors are otherwise in good shape for this titanic tie, where Mohamed Salah is bidding to etch his name into yet another page of history.
The electrifying Egyptian has had a direct hand in 13 Premier League goals against Man City - eight of his own and five assists - and only Steven Gerrard (14) has been involved in more versus the Citizens in the competition.
Manchester City possible starting lineup:
Ederson; Lewis, Dias, Ake, Gvardiol; Gonzalez; Savinho, Silva, Foden, Marmoush; Haaland
Liverpool possible starting lineup:
Alisson; Alexander-Arnold; Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Szoboszlai, Diaz; Jota
We say: Manchester City 1-1 Liverpool
Whether fatigue, pressure or a combination of both is getting to Liverpool, Slot's men have lost their way ever so slightly in recent weeks, and a City side now scoring for fun at home again are primed to take advantage, to a degree.
Haaland's availability may very well determine whether the champions can indeed get something out of Sunday's blockbuster battle, where we can envisage Man City coming away with a creditable point, one that may leave Liverpool nervously looking over their shoulder.
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Ben Knapton
