PREDICTED LINEUP - MANCHESTER CITY VS WEST HAM UNITED - FODEN STARTS IN MIDFIELD, AKE ON THE BENCH

Manchester City are back at the Etihad Stadium, as they take on West Ham United in a crucial Premier League clash.

After Arsenal's 3-1 victory over a woeful Chelsea side last night, City are back in 2nd place in the Premier League, but with 2 games in hand over Mikel Arteta's side. City also have the added advantage of not having Arsenal's end of season fixture list, with the Gunners still having to face Newcastle at St James' Park, and Brighton and Hove Albion at the Emirates, which has been a difficult fixture historically for Arsenal.

City will go into the game with momentum and confidence, after a recent run of good form, including Sunday's match against Fulham. City won 2-1 against the Cottagers, with a penalty from Erling Haaland and a screamer by Julian Alvarez getting the Blues over the line to help them win their 8th Premier League game in a row.

In his press conference, Guardiola passed crucial defender Nathan Ake as fit, which will be a huge boost to City's chase for the treble. Kevin de Bruyne, on the other hand, reportedly hadn't trained with the team before yesterday's training pictures, although a few eagle eyed City fans believe they had spotted him in the background of some of yesterday's training photos, released on the club's social media sites.

West Ham United are almost safe from relegation, with one win surely doing the job for them in what has been an underwhelming season for the Hammers. Whispers coming out of their camp is that they're looking to rest and rotate players for tonight's game, ahead of their clash against Manchester United on Sunday and their UEFA Conference League semi final match against AZ Alkmaar on Thursday night. This would be a huge boost for City, as the likes of Michail Antonio, Declan Rice and Jarrod Bowen have caused City an issue in the past before.

West Ham are strong at set pieces, scoring 3 goals this way in their 4-3 defeat to Crystal Palace last Saturday, so we could well see City operate with a 4 centre back system to limit this threat. Jarrod Bowen is arguably West Ham's most skilled counter attacking forward, so, given that Manuel Akanji was used to limit the threat of Bukayo Saka last week, we could well see this tactic used again tonight.

The Hammers are likely to use a low block in possession, so we could see the midfield/defender hybrid role that has provided City such success in the second part of this season replicated tonight, with either John Stones, Rico Lewis or Bernardo Silva the most likely to play this role.

A win for City would take them back to the top of the Premier League table, where they'd be 1 point ahead of Arsenal with a game in hand, with that game in hand coming against Brighton in the final week of the season.

Here's our predicted line up for City's Premier League clash with the Hammers:

Ederson will start in goal, where he's been so impressive in recent times.

A 4 centre back system without Nathan Ake would rely on Guardiola laying his trust in Aymeric Laporte to contain Jarrod Bowen, which, unfortunately, seems unlikely at the moment. This means we'll likely see Kyle Walker at right back, with John Stones and Ruben Dias at centre back, and Manuel Akanji at left back. It's probable that Stones will drop into midfield when City have possession, as a way of allowing City to claim control of the game.

The ever present Rodri will start at holding midfield, with City's skipper Ilkay Gundogan starting ahead of him in the left sided 8 role. Providing the "chaos" and directness in midfield, playing as the right sided 8, could be academy graduate Phil Foden, in his first start since returning from having his appendix removed in March.

Bernardo Silva could start on the right wing, where he'd provide bundles of energy and skill, and he'll be partnered by Jack Grealish on the left, who's quickly becoming one of City's most indispensable players.

Up front, coming off the back of an appearance where he scored his 50th goal of the season, Erling Haaland will start against the team who he grabbed his first two goals in a City shirt against, just 9 months after that game at the London Stadium.

Given the injury news surrounding Ake and De Bruyne, we predict to see Stefan Ortega-Moreno, Rico Lewis, Aymeric Laporte, Nathan Ake, Sergio Gomez, Kalvin Phillips, Maximo Perrone, Riyad Mahrez and Julian Alvarez on the bench.