Pep Guardiola explains why Erling Haaland & Kevin De Bruyne were dropped vs Aston Villa

Manchester City welcomed Aston Villa to the Etihad on Wednesday evening, looking to gain some ground on Arsenal and Liverpool in the title race.

When all was said and done, the Sky Blues came away with a 4-1 win, leaving them one point behind Liverpool ahead of their meeting with Sheffield United on Thursday. Man City, meanwhile, return to action on Saturday vs Crystal Palace in the day’s early kick-off and are 1/3 to pick up the win with BetVictor.

Manchester City to beat Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace vs Manchester City

1/3

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Why Erling Haaland & Kevin De Bruyne were dropped vs Aston Villa

Manchester City were able to dominate Unai Emery’s side without two of their best players as Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland were left on the bench.

Julian Alvarez deputized up front, while hat-trick hero Phil Foden took on Kevin De Bruyne’s role in the centre of the park.

Now, Pep Guardiola has explained why he dropped Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne for Wednesday’s Premier League clash and luckily for City fans, the decision was based on giving players a rest, rather than any injury concerns:

“In two days we have another game. I think all the teams at the top have a big squad and of course, we have it and that is the position today we decide for the line-up.

“They could play and rest other players. We put the players out to win it not just to rest players.

“We need fresh legs and we only played three days ago against Arsenal. We needed it because of the schedule so we needed the rest.”