Erling Haaland is absent from the Manchester City squad for Saturday evening’s fixture away at Leeds United, where victory would allow Pep Guardiola’s side to reduce the deficit on Arsenal.
The Gunners are presently five points clear at the Premier League summit, but City can pile pressure on them with a favourable result before they face Chelsea on Sunday afternoon. They will have to do so without Haaland, though, as their star striker is ruled out through injury. It is currently unclear how severe the problem is, with City playing Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night.
Haaland is the Premier League’s top goalscorer with 22 goals in 27 games, having also supplied seven assists. He has two goals and three assists in his last three league matches having rediscovered form of late.
Rayan Cherki replaces the Norwegian striker, who was actually born in Leeds, in City’s starting XI at Elland Road.
Pre-match, Guardiola had put the pressure on Haaland’s team-mates to supply him with the chances to score goals following a mid-season dry spell. He said: “Always, I say to try and make Erling as close to the box to score goals.
“There are no more tactics than that, and the team to help him score goals. It depends on the team. It’s really important [that he helps in the build-up] but we have to try and use him as little as possible, even with man-marking.
“We have to make an alternative to long balls with Erling when he’s up against a player like [Newcastle United’s Dan] Burn. Otherwise, every three days, doing that for a striker like Erling, it’s not sustainable.”