Fulham vs. Man City
Venue: Craven Cottage
Kick off: 1:30PM
Manchester City can reclaim top spot in the Premier League when they head to Championship-bound Fulham on their return to action this afternoon.
The Citizens have a game in hand to play on Liverpool, who are two points better off but face a tricky test against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, meaning that this could be a pivotal matchday at the top.
A visit from the defending champions, title favourites and undisputed form side in the land is not exactly what Fulham, bottom of the form table, would have hoped for.
City have brushed aside pretty much every side they have faced over the past three months, winning a truly incredible 19 of their last 20 matches since back-to-back defeats over Christmas.
Those losses to Crystal Palace and Leicester City gave Liverpool a major advantage in the title race, but City have since closed the gap and it is now in their hands as we enter the final straight.
Pep Guardiola’s men have not been in top-flight action since March 9, when beating a much-changed Watford 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium – their sixth successive victory in the Premier League.
Attention turned to the cup competitions before the international break, with the Citizens completing the job in their Champions League last-16 tie against Schalke 04 with a thumping 7-0 second-leg win, before scraping past Swansea City in controversial circumstances.
City now have an FA Cup semi-final against Brighton & Hove Albion to look forward to next month, as well as a Champions League quarter-final against Tottenham Hotspur, so the quadruple is very much still on.
Guardiola admitted before the two-week break that he needed each of his players to return from international duty fully fit if they were to sustain their hopes of a clean sweep of silverware.
There is good news on that front, as there as no fresh injury concerns, though this trip to Craven Cottage may still come too soon for the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Fernandinho and John Stones.
City have a maximum of 15 games left to play between now and the end of the season. Winning each of those will be an almighty ask but, on the basis of the last three months, you should not count against them doing exactly that to make this easily the most memorable campaign in their history.
Fulham possible XI: Rico, Fosu-Mensah, Chambers, Ream, Bryan, Anguissa, Serri, Babel, Cairney, Sessegnon, Mitrovic.
Manchester City possible XI: Ederson, Walker, Stones, Laporte, Zinchenko, Bernardo, Gundogan, D.Silva, Sterling, Aguero, Sane.
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