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PEP ROULETTE: PEP GUARDIOLA CONFIRMS FULL ROTATION FOR CITY VS BRENTFORD CUP TIE
Pep Guardiola will heavily rotate his squad for the Carabao Cup quarter-final vs. Brentford, bringing in academy players as Jeremy Doku and John Stones face injury layoffs.
Pep Guardiola has stated that he'll tweak Manchester City's lineup when they play Brentford in Wednesday's Carabao Cup quarter-final.
This game at the Etihad Stadium is happening shortly after City's tough 3-0 victory against Crystal Palace, which kept them in the Premier League title chase with Arsenal.
Guardiola's team, which also won against Real Madrid 2-1 at their stadium the previous week, has five league matches between December 20 and January 7. With the title race expected to get fiercer in the new year, the Brentford match is a chance for some players to rest.
Also, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Omar Marmoush are leaving for the Africa Cup of Nations to play for Algeria and Egypt, respectively.
“We’ve now lost Rayan and Omar,” Guardiola said. “We have some injuries, like John Stones and Jeremy Doku. We’ll have to wait and see. Getting to the semi-finals is just one step away.
“Now we have less time to recover, three days instead of four. Players who haven’t played as much recently will get a chance.
“Some players from the academy will also play, because after that, we play West Ham in the league on Saturday. I’m not saying that getting to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup isn't important, but usually when we do get there, we have the whole team available, with no injuries, so we can rotate the team.”
City won the Carabao Cup four times in a row under Guardiola from 2018 to 2021, but haven't reached the final since.
Even though he's busy with the title race and European games, he insisted that he's not ignoring Wednesday's match.
“If you’re one game away from a semi-final, you should go for it,” he said. “You never know when you'll get another opportunity.”
Guardiola last made changes for the Champions League game against Bayer Leverkusen at the Etihad on November 25, which ended in a 2-0 loss.
In the lineup that night were Abdukodir Khusanov, Rico Lewis, and Oscar Bobb, who haven't had many Premier League starts. They might get to play on Wednesday.
Guardiola mentioned that the defeat was mainly because of a lack of experience.
“In the Leverkusen game, we needed a more experienced player on the field,” he said. “It’s not about skill; it’s about being secure. Some players are still young and haven't played much.”
James Trafford—who Guardiola confirmed will absolutely stay at the club in January—is expected to be in goal.
However, Stones and Doku won't be playing, as Doku's injury is expected to last into January.
“Jeremy will be out for two or three weeks,” Guardiola said. “Maybe he'll return in the new year at Sunderland.”
WHY DECEMBER 2025 WAS PEP GUARDIOLA’S MOST "STATISTICALLY PERFECT" MONTH EVER
Pep Guardiola’s "most impressive month" is over. Read why Man City are now favourites to snatch the 2026 Premier League title.
It's tough to say how the 2025/26 team will stack up against Pep Guardiola's other squads from his decade at the Etihad. They've shown a lot of potential six months into the season, but trophies aren't a sure thing yet.
Still, December 2025 definitely stands out as a crazy good month in Guardiola's 95-month tenure. It's not just that the Blues are doing well in the Premier League and Champions League, but where they got those wins.
Winning at Fulham, Real Madrid, Crystal Palace, and Nottingham Forest in a single month is quite the feat. Craven Cottage might not be the scariest place, but it's a long trip for a midweek game. Plus, the other three teams have been a pain for City in recent years.
Guardiola might not be thrilled with how they won—he wants them to be consistent for the entire match and for his young players to really show who they are all the time. But getting wins at those stadiums will help his players learn as they go. Once you’ve won at the Bernabeu, not many places can intimidate you, and the Forest win was huge because City lost there badly nine months prior.
City has totally answered questions about their away game performance this season. They lost three of their four league games—against Brighton, Villa, and Newcastle—on the road. They also messed up at Monaco in the Champions League after a bad second half when they should have won. Erling Haaland was mad and stormed off after the final whistle.
Those worries are gone after a month that was one of City's best ever away from home, statistically speaking. The last time City won all their away games in a month was in early 2024/25. Before that, you’d have to go back almost two years to February 2024 to find a month where they won four.
That February 2024 team was on its way to winning a fourth straight Premier League title and reaching the FA Cup Final. Before that, it was December 2021. City never won four away games in a month during their treble season, for instance.
Part of that is just how the schedule works—there aren't always four away games in a month. And once April and May roll around, if City is still in the FA Cup, they play at a neutral site. Still, it's amazing how good their December was, picking up so many good results from tough places.
That changes things as they head into another tough month with four more away games. They're at Sunderland on New Year's Day (who haven't lost at home in the Premier League this season), then at Newcastle for the first leg of their league cup semi-final, knowing they lost there recently and haven't won there in two years.
A few days later, it's the Manchester derby, followed by a trip to Bodo as they try to finish in the top eight in the first stage of the Champions League. City has done pretty well at Old Trafford lately, but derbies are always tense. And a plastic field in the Arctic Circle doesn't sound easy.
But City can go into these games feeling more confident after the December they just had. No matter how much the home teams try to rattle them, Guardiola’s improving squad has proven they can get results anywhere. They’ll see the first game of the year in the Northeast as a chance to really show what they want to accomplish in 2026.
OFFICIAL REPORT: RODRI RETURNS AS MANCHESTER CITY EXTEND DOMINANT EIGHT-MATCH WINNING STREAK
Rodri returns as Manchester City extends its winning run to eight games. Discover how the Club World Cup saved City's season.
It felt right having Rodri back. Pep Guardiola talked more openly than before about how good the Club World Cup was for Manchester City. He'd said it could be a disaster for the team. Now, they see it as what got them back on track.
At the end of June, he said, The main thing is to get back to our old selves. That's my goal for this competition. I want them to feel like we're back to being competitive, like we have for most of the last decade. Then we'll see.
We'll see after the final. We'll rest as much as the Premier League allows. Maybe it'll be awful in the winter. Maybe we'll be tired, and the World Cup will have messed us up. I don't know; we've never done this before. We'll find out when we get back.
The good from the Club World Cup wasn't clear right away. City played alright against Juventus, but then had a tough loss against Al Hilal in the last 16. Plus, Rodri hurt his hamstring on a bad field during that loss, which messed up his recovery from his ACL injury.
In September, Rodri started three games in a week against United, Napoli, and Arsenal. That wore him out, and he soon got another hamstring issue at Brentford, keeping him out for about ten weeks.
It might not be fair, but it doesn't seem like the Club World Cup helped Rodri get better. His being back in the team at the City Ground hints at a better second half of the season.
When he's back on the field, he'll join a team that's figured out how to win and fight for the league title without him. City has won their last eight games in a row in all competitions. Their longest streak since winning the Club World Cup. Guardiola mentions that the team has rediscovered the identity he wanted.
Despite worrying about the tournament and the problems that came up, FIFA's power move has given City a chance to reset, which they really needed to get back to full strength.
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