PREDICTED LINEUP - FULHAM VS MANCHESTER CITY - ALVAREZ AND HAALAND START, WALKER ON THE BENCH

Manchester City are back in Premier League action, as they travel to Craven Cottage to take on high flying Fulham.

The Cottagers are exceeding all expectations this season, as they lie in 10th place in the Premier League, very much still in the race for a place in the Europa Conference League. Many Premier League fans, myself included, expected to see Fulham go straight back down to the Championship, however, Marco Silva's side have impressed all with their excellent football this season.

City are currently the most inform side in the Premier League, and, after an emphatic 4-1 victory over top of the league Arsenal on Wednesday night, they now have the Premier League title in their hands, as City are two points behind the Gunners, but, crucially, with 2 games in hand.

Guardiola gave some positive injury news, as he revealed Nathan Ake is recovering well from the worrying looking hamstring injury he sustained in the second leg of City's UEFA Champions League quarter final tie against Bayern Munich. There was also no mention of any injury to Kevin de Bruyne, with City's talisman replaced in the second half against Arsenal, after "some niggles in his leg," according to Guardiola.

It'll be interesting to see whether Guardiola will return to a "3-2" build up, where one of City's defenders will drop alongside the holding midfielder in possession, after Guardiola abandoned this system against Arsenal, opting to use a "4-2" build up instead, with Ilkay Gundogan dropping deeper to support the build up.

This could have just been a change to catch Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta out, however, so we could well see a return to the system that has revived City's second half of the season, where the likes of John Stones, Bernardo Silva or Rico Lewis will push into midfield to support the build up.

A win for City would put them top of the league by 1 point, with a game in hand over Arsenal. However, this game will be no walk in the park for City, in the middle of their busy schedule.

Here is our predicted line up for the trip to West London, with the opportunity to go top of the league:

Ederson will start in goal for this one, as he will likely do in every game now until the end of the season, with the exception of the FA Cup final against Manchester United.

We expect the return of the hybrid fullback/midfielder role, therefore, one can expect John Stones to return to the role where he's the best in the business. The impressive Manuel Akanji and the irreplaceable Ruben Dias should start at centre back, continuing their excellent form. For this system, Guardiola will want a left footed player on the left side of the back 3 for build up purposes, henceforth, there should be a start for Aymeric Laporte at left back.

Rodri had another dominant game at the base of midfield against Arsenal, who's fans seem to have a random agenda against him, and we expect him to start again in this game. Ahead of him should be club captain Ilkay Gundogan in the left sided 8 role, and Julian Alvarez in the right sided 8 role, pushing up alongside the striker, not risking Kevin de Bruyne in the slightest.

The right wing role is probably the most tightly contested spot in the side for Manchester City. For this match, we predict Riyad Mahrez to start on the right wing, with Jack Grealish on the left wing. They provide both control and creativity from the wings, which will compensate for Alvarez in the midfield.

Up front, Erling Haaland, who is just one goal away from his 50th goal in a Manchester City shirt, should start this one, with the possible potential of a rest coming from either an early substitution or starting on the bench against Leeds United or West Ham United.

This will therefore leave Stefan Ortega-Moreno, Kyle Walker, Rico Lewis, Sergio Gomez, Kalvin Phillips, Bernardo Silva, Cole Palmer, Kevin de Bruyne and Phil Foden on the bench, with the likes of Foden looking set to receive some game time off the bench to build up his minutes after his return from injury.

CMON CITY!!!