Preview: Hull City vs. Manchester City

Manchester City travel to Hull City for Saturday's lunchtime kickoff on the back of having been knocked out of two competitions in the space of three days.

Since winning the Capital One Cup a fortnight ago, the Citizens have seen their dreams of an unlikely quadruple crushed by defeats to Barcelona and Wigan Athletic.

With neither the Champions League nor FA Cup trophies now on their radar, Manuel Pellegrini's men can focus their efforts on attempting to chase down Chelsea at the top of the Premier League table.

City are nine points behind the London outfit, but do have three games in hand and the opportunity to, at least temporarily, cut that gap this weekend, with Chelsea not in action until Saturday evening.

Hull have seen a previously-impressive home record slightly tarnished by consecutive losses at the KC Stadium, but they still sit five points above water on their first season back in the big time.

Steve Bruce will be keen to guarantee their top-flight safety as soon as possible so that he is able to give their first FA Cup semi-final since 1930, against Sheffield United, his full attention.

Jake Livermore, Hull's joint-top league goalscorer this season with three, is a doubt as he battles a thigh problem, and Robbie Brady, Joe Dudgeon and Paul McShane are long-term absentees.

After being ineligible for the FA Cup quarter-final win over Sunderland, Shane Long and Nikica Jelavic are both expected to be recalled up front, despite Matty Fryatt's goal helping the Tigers book a Wembley date.

City will once again be without Sergio Aguero after the striker's injury-plagued year suffered another setback at the Camp Nou, with the club uncertain how long be will be sidelined with a hamstring strain.

Pellegrini will therefore partner Edin Dzeko and Alvaro Negredo, who scored in City's win in the reverse fixture, in attack, and Stevan Jovetic may make the bench if he recovers from a muscle injury.

Pablo Zabaleta and Martin Demichelis are available as their suspensions only apply in European action.

Recent form

Hull: WLWWDL

Man City: LLWWLW

Possible starting lineups

Hull: McGregor; Rosenior, Davies, Chester, Figueroa; Elmohamady, Meyler, Huddlestone, Quinn; Long, Jelavic

Man City: Hart; Zabaleta, Kompany, Demichelis, Kolarov; Silva, Toure, Fernandinho, Nasri; Negredo, Dzeko

Sports Mole says: 1-1