Early Team news: Manchester City fans stunned as star player drops to Bench despite Electrifying form

Manchester City begin their Champions League campaign at home to Napoli on Wednesday night. Kick-off at the Etihad Stadium is at 20:00

Man City predicted lineup vs Napoli

Man City Predicted XI (4-3-3): Donnarumma, Lewis, Dias, Khusanov, Gvardiol, Silva, Rodri, Reijnders, Doku, Bobb, Haaland.

Man City team news vs Napoli

Phil Foden made an emphatic return to the starting line-up in the Manchester derby on Saturday, opening the scoring in City’s 3-0 win over their rivals with a header after some smart work from Jeremie Doku.

However, Pep Guardiola may look to manage Foden’s workload, avoiding two quick successive starts, meaning Oscar Bobb could move to the right side of attack in place of the Englishman.

Rico Lewis could also return to the starting XI, shifting the defence, with Gvardiol expected to line up at left-back.

Donnarumma will remain in goal after a strong start to his Manchester City career, keeping a clean sheet.

Omar Marmoush remains sidelined after suffering a knee injury on international duty for Egypt, while Rayan Cherki is also out for a further six weeks with a thigh problem.

Mateo Kovacic remains in training after surgery on an Achilles issue and is due back in October.

Rayan Ait-Nouri is managing a hamstring problem, and the Napoli fixture comes too soon for the Algerian, although he could return for Sunday’s game against Arsenal.

John Stones started the first three matches of the season for City but withdrew from the England squad with a minor muscle issue. He could be back in contention for the clash with Napoli.

Haaland out to continue hot streak

Manchester City can take confidence from an in-form Erling Haaland leading the line. Including international fixtures, the Norwegian has scored 11 goals in six games this season.

He looked at his very best against United on Sunday with two superbly taken goals in the 3-0 win.

In Haaland’s two starts against Napoli during his time at RB Salzburg, he scored three goals.

The deadline-day signing of Donnarumma is also a boost for City heading into this fixture.

The Italian goalkeeper played a crucial role in PSG’s Champions League triumph last season, and he is no stranger to Napoli, having faced them multiple times while at AC Milan.

Manchester City scraped through the league phase of the Champions League in its inaugural running last season, and now with a better understanding of the format, they will want to ensure a stronger campaign. A statement win against Napoli would be a big step towards doing that.

However, they did go unbeaten in their four home legs of the league phase last season, winning two and drawing two.

City have a huge clash away to Arsenal next Sunday in the Premier League and going into that game following a European success would do their confidence a world of good.