• Both teams to score
• Over 2.5 goals
• Manchester City to win

Following a near two-week hiatus from Premier League football, Manchester City resume their quest for title glory on Monday night.

They visit Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium for the first time after edging out Southampton 2-1 to reach the FA Cup final last weekend, while the Toffees suffered a heartbreaking late 2-1 loss to West Ham United.

Pep Guardiola’s men are now six points behind the Gunners before even kicking a ball as the north London thumped Fulham 3-0 on Saturday.

That leaves City with two games in hand on the current league leaders, and needing to win both.

Everton head into Monday’s game following back-to-back 2-1 defeats, both sealed by gut-wrenching injury-time goals.

Deflating defeats to Liverpool and West Ham have left the Toffees stuck in 11th, though all is not lost with just 3 points between them and the Top 6.

Manchester City won the previous match 2-0 last year October, with both goals coming from Erling Haaland.

Everton are winless in a staggering 17 Premier League games against Man City, who also prevailed on each of their last eight visits to Goodison Park in the top flight.

Guardiola vs. David Moyes has also been a mismatch down the years, as the Man City manager has not lost any of his previous 15 Premier League head-to-heads with the Scotsman, overseeing 12 wins and three draws in that time.

Everton Premier League form: 🟩🟥🟩🟧🟥🟥

Manchester City Premier League form: 🟩🟧🟧🟩🟩🟩

Manchester City form (all competitions): 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Everton were always going to be without loanee Jack Grealish, who would have been ineligible to face his parent club. Nonetheless, the winger has been ruled out for the rest of the campaign with a stress fracture in his foot.

Elsewhere for the Toffees, defender Jarrad Branthwaite saw his campaign come to an end after his hamstring injury in the Merseyside derby defeat.

Beto missed West Ham loss with a concussion, but should be back in contention here.

On Manchester City’s end, Guardiola revealed in his pre-match press conference that Rodri was “getting better” as he manages a groin problem, but the Spaniard had not trained before Friday and remains doubtfu.

Either way, Rodri’s understudy Nico Gonzalez is in no position to be demoted after his 30-yard wonder strike to win the FA Cup semi-final – the longest-range goal by any Man City player this season.

Centre-backs Josko Gvardiol (calf) and Ruben Dias (thigh) are still missing, but Guardiola’s squad is otherwise in good shape for the trip to Merseyside.

Everton: Pickford; O’Brien, Keane, Tarkowski, Mykolenko; Garner, Gueye; McNeil, Dewsbury-Hall, Ndiaye; Beto

Manchester City: Donnarumma; Nunes, Khusanov, Guehi, O’Reilly; Silva, Gonzalez; Semenyo, Cherki, Doku; Haaland

City do not need to be blowing teams to smithereens at this stage of the season, they simply need to find ways to win, and that is exactly what Guardiola’s men are doing.

That said, this is a tricky test for them, as they will have their attentions split between the Premier League and the upcoming FA Cup final against Chelsea.

Nonetheless, the visitors will now recall well-rested big-hitters against a patchy Everton side, and a seventh consecutive victory for the Sky Blues is the only outcome we can envisage.

Correct score prediction: Everton 1-2 Manchester City