Six players ruled out for Manchester City against Southampton, confirms Pep Guardiola | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has confirmed that he will continue to be without six of his first-team players for the visit of Southampton on Saturday afternoon.

Manchester City will be looking to maintain their unbeaten start to the new season by a further gameweek having established themselves as the only remaining side to hold such a record this season last weekend.

Following Arsenal’s 2-0 defeat away to Bournemouth, Manchester City responded with late heroics from John Stones at Molineux as they came from behind to defeat Gary O’Neil’s Wolves via a 1-2 scoreline.

That victory was followed up by a rout in European competition, dismissing of Czech Republic side Sparta Prague at the Etihad Stadium in style and a 5-0 scoreline, moving them up to third position in the league table in the UEFA Champions League.

But this weekend will continue to bring its challenges on the personnel front following on from a hugely depleted squad that was lined-up against Lars Friis’ side in midweek, as Pep Guardiola issued an update on his squad on Friday afternoon.

Speaking during his pre-match press conference ahead of the visit of Russell Martin’s side to the Etihad Stadium this weekend, Guardiola confirmed that there are no new changes to his available Manchester City players.

However, that does not bring good news for the Manchester City coach, who will remain without six key figures within his first-team squad for the second successive game after the midweek clash against Sparta Prague.

While Oscar Bobb and Rodri remain sidelined with long-term injury problems and are not expected back until the new year, Kevin De Bruyne also remains absent despite continuing to train with the first-team squad.

On the subject of uncertainty over when the Belgian will return to the first-team matchday picture, Guardiola explained, “I don’t know.

“Of course, I prefer to have all the squad with this amount of games. But it is what it is. Hopefully he comes back soon. I don’t know yet, I would like to tell you, but I don’t know.”

Additionally, Kyle Walker remains sidelined with the knee problem sustained during the international break, whilst Jack Grealish and Jeremy Doku will remain absent having picked up problems during last weekend’s meeting away to Wolves.

The injury problems for Pep Guardiola’s side are mounting at a crucial period of their season with matches unrelenting and the importance of such fixtures remaining high heading towards the festive stage of the campaign.

Following the home tie against Southampton on Saturday afternoon, Manchester City will take on another midweek clash as they travel to face Tottenham in the Carabao Cup fourth round, before visiting Bournemouth away from home.

A visit to Portugal and Sporting CP will then be due on matchday four of the UEFA Champions League, with a fourth and final successive away trip coming against Brighton & Hove Albion the following weekend.