Boost for West Brom as Guardiola expected to drop top Man City performer – report
Pep Guardiola is expected to bring Ferran Torres into the side to face West Brom on Tuesday night.
According to the Manchester Evening News, Algerian winger Riyad Mahrez could be the man to miss out, with Guardiola tipped to make some changes to his starting XI.
City come into the game off the back of a lacklustre performance in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford, where they battled to a 0-0 draw.
The Baggies can take some hope from that performance, with Premier League giants far from their free-flowing best against their Manchester rivals.
Slaven Bilic remains in charge at West Brom for the game against City, despite previous reports claiming that a negative result against Newcastle could have sealed his fate.
Good news for the Baggies – if there can be such a thing
Make no mistake about it, Torres is an extremely talented player and West Brom can only dream about having such luxuries throughout their squad.
However, not having to deal with Mahrez has to be considered as good news for Bilic and his squad.
The former Leicester City man has been one of City’s top performers in the Premier League this season, with four goals and one assist.
Mahrez has an impressive average WhoScored match rating of 7.36 this season – only Kevin De Bruyne in the City squad ranks higher (7.49).
Torres only has one goal and one assist to his name following his summer move from Valencia and does rank inside City’s top performers this season, according to WhoScored.
While it will still be a thankless task for the Baggies, the smallest of margins could make the difference and Bilic will no doubt take any advantage that he can get at this point.
In other West Brom news, Slaven Bilic reveals West Brom motivation ahead of daunting Man City clash