Further Covid cases pose another selection conundrum for City boss Pep Guardiola

Leaders Manchester City could again be without several players for the Premier League visit of Chelsea after suffering further cases of coronavirus this week.

Ederson, Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Fernandinho, John Stones and Jack Grealish all missed last week’s FA Cup win at Swindon but the club have not confirmed exactly who has tested positive. They have also not said who the new cases are, nor who is now negative.

Riyad Mahrez is a definite absentee as he is away with Algeria at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Andreas Christensen will miss out for Chelsea after testing positive for Covid-19.

The Blues will hope Thiago Silva and N’Golo Kante can start, having returned to the bench for Wednesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final second leg at Tottenham after their own Covid isolation.

Trevoh Chalobah (hamstring), Ben Chilwell (knee) and Reece James (hamstring) are longer-term absentees, while Edouard Mendy is at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Manchester City provisional squad: Ederson, Carson, Steffen, Walker, Cancelo, Stones, Dias, Laporte, Ake, Zinchenko, Rodri, Gundogan, Fernandinho, De Bruyne, Foden, Grealish, Silva, Sterling, Jesus, Palmer, McAtee, Mbete, Lavia, Kayky.

Chelsea provisional squad: Arrizabalaga, Bettinelli, Rudiger, Sarr, Silva, Azpilicueta, Alonso, Kovacic, Jorginho, Kante, Loftus-Cheek, Niguez, Barkley, Hudson-Odoi, Pulisic, Ziyech, Mount, Werner, Havertz, Lukaku.