Guardiola makes four changes for City’s final visit to Goodison Park | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has made four changes to his team for our 100th - and final - game at Goodison Park.

Stefan Ortega Moreno, Matheus Nunes, Savinho and Bernardo Silva come into the Starting XI in place of Ederson, Rico Lewis, Mateo Kovacic and James McAtee for the 15:00 (UK) kick-off against Everton.

Lewis, Kovacic and McAtee drop to the bench while Ederson is out injured after failing to recover from the muscular issue he picked up in the 5-2 win against Crystal Palace.

Meanwhile, Phil Foden - who missed the Eagles game - is fit enough to take a place among the substitutes.

Amidst the emotion of a last trip to this 133-year-old grand old ground, there’s no question that this match carries serious significance this season, with the Blues aiming for three points to continue our push for Champions League football.

We’ve made it into the elite European competition in the past 14 seasons and the boss will want to do again, with a maximum haul this afternoon further cementing our spot in the top five, which guarantees qualification once again.

TEAM NEWS

CITY XI: Ortega Moreno, Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly, Nico, Gundogan, De Bruyne (C), Savinho, Bernardo, Marmoush

Subs: Carson, Kovacic, Grealish, Doku, Akanji, Khusanov, Foden, Lewis, McAtee

TACTICS

Stefan Ortega Moreno starts in goal and will be protected by a back four of Matheus Nunes, Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol and Nico O’Reilly.

Nico and Ilkay Gundogan will aim to dominate the battle ground of midfield with captain Kevin De Bruyne offering more attacking impetus to the champions.

Up top, Bernardo Silva, Savinho and Omar Marmoush will aim to do damage to the Toffees backline.

MOTIVATION AND MEMORIES

As we said earlier, today’s encounter is an important one for Pep Guardiola and his Blues.

We’re eager to make it into the Champions League once again with a spot in the Premier League top five guaranteeing us a place in next season’s competition.

We’re fifth at present but three points this afternoon would move us up into fourth in the table, with the team currently above us, Nottingham Forest, not playing until Monday when they travel to Tottenham Hotspur.

Alongside the drive and focus in the dressing room, there will also be a fair bit of nostalgia in the air.

This will be our last dance at Goodison Park as the Toffees say goodbye to their traditional old ground come the end of the season.

They’ll be moving into Everton Stadium, a new complex at Bramley-Moore Dock which will house 52,888.

As City fans survey the scene with kick-off imminent and Z-Cars blazing out at full volume, they’ll be forgiven for thinking back to memories past.

Of late, those recollections have been positive ones having won our last seven top-flight games at Goodison Park.

Another triumph today would certainly be welcome as we aim to say a fond farewell and also finish the season in superlative style.

GUNDOGAN BACK AT GOODISON

Ilkay Gundogan will also be feeling a little sentimental as he makes a return to Goodison Park this afternoon.

The last time he competed at the 133-year-old stadium he produced a remarkable captain’s performance in a 3-0 May 2023 victory.

Gundogan scored two and set up the other as the Blues moved within three points of a third successive Premier League title.

Gundogan, on his 300th City appearance, opened the scoring with an incredible flicked finish in the 36th minute before providing for Erling Haaland to head home his 52nd goal of the season just two minutes later. The German added his second and City’s third shortly after half-time with a wonderful free-kick.

WATCH: City's best Premier League goals at Goodison Park

The result put City four points ahead of nearest challengers Arsenal with three games left to play.

In the end, Pep Guardiola’s men didn’t need to kick another ball before being crowned champions, the Gunners losing 3-0 at home to Brighton in the day’s late game before going down 1-0 at Nottingham Forest to guarantee the Blues yet another title.

We were also alive in two other competitions, too – the Champions League and FA Cup – with dreams of the Treble swirling in the air.

Remind us how that ended up?

WATCH: Memorable Moments: Everton v City

MATCH STATS

-Everton are winless in their last 15 Premier League games against City (D3 L12) since a 4-0 win in January 2017 under Ronald Koeman.

-City drew 1-1 with Everton in the reverse fixture in December but haven’t failed to win both meetings with the Toffees in a single league campaign since 2016/17 (D1 L1).

-Since David Moyes’ return game as Everton game on 15 January, only Liverpool and Arsenal (1 each) have lost fewer Premier League games than the Toffees (2), who’ve taken 21 points in his 13 games this season (W5 D6).

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-Kevin De Bruyne’s had a hand in six goals in his last six Premier League starts (1 goal, 5 assists). He’s scored and assisted in 28 games for City, with only Mohamed Salah for Liverpool (41), Wayne Rooney for Man Utd (35) and Thierry Henry for Arsenal (32) doing so more often for a single club.

-Omar Marmoush has scored six goals in his first 10 Premier League appearances for City, having 15 shots on target in this time, seven more than any of his teammates. Only five players have ever netted more in their first 10 games for the club, while in the Guardiola era only Erling Haaland (15) and Gabriel Jesus (7) have done so.

-Everton have drawn their last four home Premier League matches, their longest run since February 2015. They have never drawn five home league games in a row.

-Our five goals in the 5-2 win over Crystal Palace took City to 102 goals in all competitions in 2024/25, a 12th consecutive season in which we’ve scored 100+ goals, the longest run of any top-flight side in history.

-David Moyes is winless in his last 15 Premier League meetings with City (D2 L13). However, as Everton manager, he only won more league games against Fulham (14) than he did against City (12), winning each of his last four against us at Goodison Park.