West Brom tasked with stopping free-scoring Manchester City in Carabao Cup clash

West Brom are the next side tasked with stopping free-scoring Manchester City as Pep Guardiola’s side travel to The Hawthorns in the Carabao Cup.

City are unbeaten in six games this season but have really hit their stride in the last three, scoring 15 goals without reply. Liverpool and Watford were swept aside 5-0 and 6-0 respectively in the Premier League, with a 4-0 Champions League hammering of Feyenoord coming between those matches.

It remains to be seen how strong a side Guardiola opts to field in Wednesday’s third-round League Cup tie but his teams in the competition last year were mostly filled with senior men.

Some rotation is likely, with goalkeeper Ederson a strong candidate to be rested after playing two matches in protective headgear following his nasty clash with Liverpool’s Sadio Mane.

The game might also provide the opportunity for midfielder Ilkay Gundogan to step up his return from a long-term knee injury or for captain Vincent Kompany to be eased back into action after a calf problem.

Yaya Toure – whose recent omissions have not been clearly explained by Guardiola – and Fabian Delph would hope to be involved for the first time this season.

Two of last season’s stars, Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling, have only started one and two games respectively this term and might see more action.

Other options include summer signing Danilo, who has sat out the last two games after being involved in the first four. The Brazilian defender, a £26.5million recruit from Real Madrid, is enjoying the competition for places at the Etihad Stadium and believes it will serve the club well in all competitions.

Danilo said: “When you see Man City’s squad with lots of quality players, the experienced mixed with the youth we have, that can only give us confidence for all the challenges we have to face this season.

“We are aware about the difficulty of the task. We know that every week we are going to have more games in our legs, we will be more tired, there will be unexpected things along the way, but hopefully we will be able to fight for all the trophies and manage to win as much as possible.”