At the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City and Chelsea meet for a top-four Premier League battle after both teams dropped their title ambitions before the season's end.
Last August Manchester City won 2-0 at Chelsea in their highly anticipated first meeting of the season.
The trend of positive results for Man City seemed promising when they collected 23 goals and allowed only four in their recent six-game unbeaten run but their Champions League clash with PSG proved a crushing defeat as they lost 4-2.
Man City gave up their 2-goal lead early in the second period as they surrendered three more goals during the next 22 minutes before Goncalo Ramos scored a fourth goal to reduce the Citizens' Champions League playoff prospects.
Man City finds themselves in the 25th position of the Champions League group stage as they attempt to secure a last-16 spot through next week's victory against Club Brugge but have faced nine losses in games they led this season making them the Premier League team whose lead stats have degraded the most.
Guardiola's team needs to move past their losses quickly because multiple challenging league matches with Chelsea, Arsenal, Newcastle and other Premier League opponents (including Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur) and Nottingham Forest will test their ability to finish among the Premier League's top four places.
Man City suffer defeats in each of their three Premier League contests that follow European midweek games yet they maintain an undefeated record against Chelsea across their seven recent Premier League meetings (W5 D2).
Chelsea has won two and drawn one of their last three games across all competitions after suffering a slump in form just before the new year (D2 L2). They have also picked up four points from their previous two Premier League home games against Bournemouth and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The West Londoners defeated Wolves 3-1 on Monday after securing a point at the last second in a 2-2 draw with Bournemouth. Chelsea ended a five-match losing streak in the Premier League and secured their 11th top-flight victory of the season with goals from Tosin Adarabioyo, Marc Cucurella, and Noni Madueke.
Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov, and Vitor Reis are the three new players the Citizens added to their roster this week, and they are all expected to make their debut on Saturday. However, it is unclear if Guardiola will be inclined to start any of the three.
Guardiola is likely to keep Savinho on the left flank, while Kevin De Bruyne, who has five Premier League goals against former team Chelsea, may operate behind central striker Erling Haaland. Jack Grealish, who helped City score both of their goals in midweek as a substitute, will be pushing to start.
Maresca defended his first-choice goalkeeper on Monday and might continue to use him on Saturday, despite the fact that Robert Sanchez has been personally guilty for four mistakes that have resulted in goals this season, including his most recent one against Wolves last time out. But if necessary, Filip Jorgensen is in the wings.
While star playmaker Cole Palmer, another former City player, is expected to continue playing a key role behind striker Nicolas Jackson, former City winger Jadon Sancho will be vying to start ahead of Madueke or Pedro Neto.
