Jota and Firmino both start as Jesus returns for Man City’s clash with Liverpool

The Premier League winners and runners-up in each of the last two seasons clash at the Etihad this afternoon.

Manchester City v Liverpool gets underway at 16:30 GMT.

Debate has raged this week over whether Diogo Jota (£6.4m) or Roberto Firmino (£9.2m) would get the nod to join Mohamed Salah (£12.4m) and Sadio Mane (£12.0m) in the Liverpool attack but, in the end, both players start for Jurgen Klopp’s side.

Barring any curveball formation choices, the Reds’ boss seems to have opted for a similar 4-2-3-1 set-up that he trialled in the Gameweek 6 win over Sheffield United.

Klopp has made two changes from last Saturday’s win over West Ham, with Jota replacing Curtis Jones (£4.4m) in one of those alterations.

Joel Matip (£5.4m) is in for Nat Phillips (£4.0m) at centre-half in the other.

Pep Guardiola has also made a brace of changes from Gameweek 7.

Gabriel Jesus (£9.3m) is back to lead the line, with the Brazilian making his first Premier League appearance since the opening weekend of the season.

Ilkay Gundogan (£5.4m) also returns to the heart of the City midfield, with Riyad Mahrez (£8.3m) and Bernardo Silva (£7.4m) making way.

There is again no place in the hosts’ starting XI for Phil Foden (£6.6m), who hasn’t started a league match since Gameweek 5.

It’s not often that we can say that the majority of City assets are differentials in FPL but that is the case at present, with Kevin De Bruyne (£11.5m) the only member of Guardiola’s squad who boasts a double-digit ownership.

They are even less popular within the top 10k, with Kyle Walker (£6.1m) – who sits in 8.15% of these squads – the most-selected option.

Salah is by some distance the most-owned player in this fixture, both within the top 10k (65.34%) and overall (46.9%).

Manchester City XI: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Laporte, Cancelo, Gundogan, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Torres, Sterling, Jesus.

Liverpool XI: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Gomez, Robertson, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Jota, Firmino, Mané, Salah.

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