Manchester City head to the Britannia Stadium to take on Stoke City in Saturday's early lunchtime kickoff, where they will be looking to bolster their lead at the top of the Premier League table.
The Citizens are given the advantage of playing first on a packed weekend of top-flight action, allowing them to potentially move three points clear at the summit.
Stoke City
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Defeats to Watford and Sunderland aside, the past couple of months have provided plenty of positive results for Stoke supporters to look back fondly on.
A slow start to the campaign, in which it took seven games to finally get off the mark in terms of a maiden win, has since made way for five victories and a draw in their last eight league games.
There is also a League Cup semi-final to look forward to - their first in 43 years - thanks to a rather comfortable 2-0 triumph over Sheffield Wednesday in midweek that provides hope of some silverware in the new year.
Right now Mark Hughes will simply be focused on trying to better last season's ninth-place finish, though, which would be some achievement following the sticky spell to kick off the campaign.
The Welshman came in for some criticism following that barren early run, but some impressive results since then - most notably the 1-0 win over fallen champions Chelsea - suggest that a top-half finish is in the pipeline yet again.
Hughes's side may have stuttered to a 2-0 defeat at Sunderland last time out to end their four-game unbeaten run in all competitions, but that can very much be put down to their opponents enjoying an upturn in fortunes under new manager Sam Allardyce.
Now City must ensure that they do not stagnate and see the gap between themselves and other outside Europa League hopefuls open up, with four points currently the difference between themselves and Liverpool in sixth as things stand.
Stoke's recent defensive improvement, which has seen five clean sheets recorded in their last seven games, provides a more than adequate platform to push on, while the easy-on-the-eye style of play - 326 accurate passes-per-game, a club-record high - also offers further proof of the successful work being carried out by Hughes in the Potteries.
Recent form in Premier League: WLDWWL
Recent form (all competitions): WDWWLW
Manchester City
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The form has certainly been mixed of late, but as far as Manuel Pellegrini is concerned things are very much on track for Man City.
With a League Cup semi-final meeting against Everton to look forward to, a place in the Champions League guaranteed post-Christmas, and a spot atop the Premier League table, it is so far so good for the Citizens.
Successive defeats towards the end of November, including a shock 4-1 reverse at home to Liverpool, looked to have derailed City's campaign and led to inevitable talk of Pep Guardiola taking charge.
Ultimately, the only real damage from those defeats - other than a bruised ego, of course - is the likelihood of having to make do with a second-place finish in Group D and settling for 'just' a one-point lead over realistic closest challengers Manchester United in the Premier League title race.
It has been business as usual over the last week, with wins over Southampton and Hull City keeping hopes alive on two fronts, allowing Pellegrini to breathe easily once again in what is expected to be his final campaign at the helm if recent reports are to be believed.
One concern for the Chilean will be at the back, where City have kept a clean sheet in just two of their last nine league games after previously recording six shutouts in a row before that.
However, only three teams can boast a better defensive record than the Citizens in the top flight, while the 30 goals scored is the outright best in the division.
Keeping top scorer Sergio Aguero fit for the remainder of the season could prove to be key to City's hopes of success both domestically and in Europe, but the summer additions of Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne have already provided plenty of strength in depth in the attacking department.
Recent form in Premier League: WDWDLW
Recent form (all competitions): WDLLWW
Team News
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Worryingly for Stoke, for just the third time this season the forward trident of Aguero, De Bruyne and David Silva could link up from the start this weekend for the visitors.
That is very much dependent on the fitness of both Aguero and Silva, with the latter making his first start in two months on Tuesday night and the former picking up a knock in the win over Southampton.
Elsewhere, City are expected to still be without injured skipper Vincent Kompany, while Eliaquim Mangala is suspended and Joe Hart remains on the sidelines.
As far as the hosts are concerned, Ryan Shawcross sat out the League Cup win against Wednesday due to the red card he picked up last weekend, but he will take his place back in the heart of defence for the Britannia Stadium clash.
Peter Crouch lasted less than 15 minutes upon his return to the Potters' first team last time out, so Mame Biram Diouf could return to the squad to provide cover for Jonathan Walters up top.
Stoke City possible starting lineup:
Butland; Johnson, Shawcross, Wollscheid, Pieters; Whelan, Adam; Shaqiri, Bojan, Arnautovic; Walters
Manchester City possible starting lineup:
Caballero; Sagna, Otamendi, Demichelis, Kolarov; Toure, Delph; De Bruyne, Silva, Sterling; Aguero
Head To Head
Stoke have beaten the Citizens in just two of their 14 top-flight encounters, including one win in the last 12.
Aguero in particular likes this fixture, having scored five goals in the same number of appearances against the Potters, while Pablo Zabaleta has also struck twice.
Overall, Stoke have netted only seven goals in 14 outings against their opponents, although they have lost just one of seven home Premier League encounters between the two.
We say: Stoke City 1-2 Manchester City
Man City's makeshift centre-back pairing will surely not fill visiting supporters with too much hope of ending their barren run of clean sheets, but up top key men are returning and hitting form. Stoke certainly know how to frustrate their opponents, however, having held them to five draws at the Britannia Stadium in their last seven meetings, which could provide a tense and tight contest to kick off the weekend's action.
Daniel Lewis
