Everton manager Roberto Martinez: “The game on Wednesday is so important in the league for different reasons; they’re trying to get that top spot and we’re trying to get as high up as we can, and the three points are important in themselves”.
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City played Everton in their League Cup semi-final first leg last week, and face the Merseyside club in the league on Wednesday.
However, his manager, Roberto Martinez, has confirmed the 22-year-old Belgian has recovered from the problem and is fit to play against City.
“I’m delighted with the options we have”.
Meanwhile, Manuel Pellegrini, who has seen his side win their all of their last five home games in all competitons, was likely to make changes from the side with which he started at Goodison a week ago, with players like Raheem Sterling and Aleksander Kolarov candidates to retake their places in the starting XI.
“I’ve never come up against the same team as often as this and it is a pretty quick turnaround”, Sterling added.
Steve Wilson: “If familiarity breeds contempt then the second leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final will be an ill-tempered affair”.
“That way, we don’t let anything affect our thinking and purely focus on our own performance”.
David Silva and Yaya Toure missed the FA Cup win at Norwich but are both fit to return against Everton.
We round-up the most interesting Premier League stats ahead of the mid-week action.
The home side will be double motivated: not least to attempt to close the gap on league leaders Arsenal, but to also seek revenge for a recent 2-1 loss to the Toffees in the League Cup earlier this month.
Barkley is shown to be better than Sterling in seven key aspects of their games, beating more players, playing more successful passes, and having more shots per game – even though he always appears reluctant to shoot!
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“I have been very fortunate with players over the years as a manager but it will be hard to see a better footballer, in terms of character, than Gareth Barry”, he said.
