Manchester City find themselves with an 11-point gap to bridge at the top of the Premier League table heading into their first match of December, which comes against Burnley at Turf Moor on Tuesday.
The champions dropped more points in a 2-2 draw with Newcastle United on Saturday, making it just one win in their last five games across all competitions.
Liverpool suffered no such slip-up to increase their advantage at the summit, leaving Man City knowing that they can ill-afford any more setbacks at the start of a month which sees them play eight matches.
Here, Sports Mole looks at how Pep Guardiola could line his side up for Tuesday's contest.
Out: Ilkay Gundogan (suspension), Leroy Sane (knee), Aymeric Laporte (knee), Sergio Aguero (thigh), Oleksandr Zinchenko (knee)
Doubtful: None
> Click here for Man City's latest injury and suspension news ahead of this match
Record goalscorer Sergio Aguero remains sidelined with a thigh injury which means that Gabriel Jesus is expected to lead the line once again for this match, but there could be some rotation around him.
Guardiola is likely to try to keep his side fresh ahead of such a packed December, particularly with one eye on the derby against Manchester United on Saturday.
Bernardo Silva, Joao Cancelo and Rodri are among the players who will be hopeful of benefitting from that having been left out of the starting lineup against Newcastle, with the latter expected to replace the suspended Ilkay Gundogan, who picked up his fifth booking of the season at Newcastle.
Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne were both on the scoresheet at St James' Park - the latter in thunderous style - and are both arguably too important for Guardiola to consider resting with every match bordering on 'must-win' territory now.
The physical nature of Burnley's front two could mean that Nicolas Otamendi is preferred to John Stones alongside Fernandinho, who appears to have established himself as Man City's first-choice centre-back in Aymeric Laporte's continued absence.
Leroy Sane is another long-term absentee for the champions, while Tuesday's match is likely to come too soon for Oleksandr Zinchenko too.
body check tags ::
