City Face Everton Challenge

Etihad Stadium welcomes the Toffees in what promises to be a tricky encounter for the Citizens.

Everton have managed to get the better of City for a number of seasons and have become somewhat of a bogey team. David Moyes will be hoping to continue his sides fine start whilst derailing City's.

Meanwhile, City chief Roberto Mancini will be hoping to get City moving forward again at full speed. With a number of key players rested, the Italian has a plethora of options at his disposal.

Who will gain the advantage as both sides strive to maintain momentum?

Joleon Lescott's former Everton teammate and England international Phil Jagielka reserved special praise for City but was confident that his side could overcome their more illustrious opponents:

'City have been frightening, really, Both Manchester team seem to have taken the Premier League by the scruff of the neck and City will be competing for the title this season and not fourth.

'If I do my homework, it will take me a few nights given the amount of strikers they have got. But we`ll have a rough idea of what squad they`ll play.

'It`s going to be a hard game, but we normally do quite well at City`s ground and hopefully that can continue.

'We are suited at times to play on the counter-attack and City play 4-2-4 so there`ll be a chance to hit them on the break. We did that last year with two early goals and managed to see that out until the end'

Owen Hargreaves might find himself on the bench after a goal scoring debut against Birmingham midweek. Kolo Toure is another player who could find himself back in the side after impressing in the back four.

Meanwhile Nigel De Jong looks set to miss out yet again as he recovers from injury.

Against a team that poses such a massive threat from set-pieces, I think Edin Dzeko might just be our own set-piece mastermind.

If the Bosnian can get his head to a decent cross we might just be seeing the Poznan and the cracking Dzeko chant doing the rounds.

Phil Neville will most likely be drafted back into the side to provide some defensive steel, while Apostolos Vellios and Royston Drenthe are in contention for a starting berth after impressing against Wigan with a goal a-piece.

Apostolos Vellios scored for Everton in their last Premier League game and the fact that we haven't seen much of him poses a direct threat.

While he may be somewhat of a luxury in a huffing and puffing Everton side, he may just provide that bit of magic to break a deadlock.

Everton have won 10 the last 14 meetings between the two sides, including their last four away games.

Everton will be up for this and City will be desperate not to conceed another three points to the Toffees. Although this game has goals in it, i'm not sure either side will open up enough to make a breakthrough. I predict a 0-0 draw, but if there is a winner, it will most likely be from a set-piece.

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