If Manchester City and Pep Guardiola want to reduce the gap between them and Liverpool, they will have to do so without one of their key players.
Speaking in today's pre-match presser, Guardiola admitted that he will have to prepare the highly-anticipated match between the Citizens and the Reds without star goalkeeper Ederson, who was not able to recover from a thigh problem picked up during the UEFA Champions League match against Atalanta. Claudio Bravo will be handed his first Premier League start in 18 months due to this injury setback.
Ederson is not able to play. We have another top keeper - Claudio Bravo can do it too. We won the Carabao Cup thanks to Claudio. He's an exceptional keeper, he played a lot of games for Chile," Guardiola said.
While the coach may be confident enough on Bravo's skills, his last performance was not as satisfying, since his cameo appearance against Atalante ended after 35 minutes, since he was sent off against the Italian side.
Guardiola looked back to that incident and offered words of support for Bravo, blaming the team for a mishap that ended with Kyle Walker filling in for both shot-stoppers.
"The red card at Atalanta is because we lost the ball in a dangerous position. He won the Copa America, respect that guy, he's an incredible goalkeeper," Guardiola added.
If there was any doubt on how capable Bravo is, Guardiola asked his fans to trust his judgement, since the Chilean has been working properly for an opportunity as this one.
"I see him every day in training and how good a goalkeeper he is, we're not going to lose because of Claudio." Guardiola concluded.
