Manchester City will be hoping to capitalise on any Arsenal complacency when they host Brentford in the Premier League this weekend.
Pep Guardiola embraces Savinho after his Manchester City cameo vs Southampton
Pep Guardiola embraces Savinho after his Manchester City cameo vs Southampton(Image: James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images)
View Image
Pep Guardiola's Manchester City teams can be tough to predict, but it seems he has settled on his first-choice starting line-up for the run-in.
This was proven on Monday night when the big hitters who were rested for the FA Cup semi-final vs Southampton returned for the Premier League clash with Everton. Erling Haaland, Bernardo Silva, Jeremy Doku and Nico O'Reilly all returned to the team, while the likes of Phil Foden, Tijjani Reijnders, Mateo Kovacic and Omar Marmoush dropped out.
The omission of Savinho from the starting XI against both Southampton and Everton raises a question. The Brazilian winger did not start in the win at Wembley and he is certainly not in Guardiola's first-choice XI.
This season has been one of struggles for Savinho, not least due to the injury suffered on New Year's Day at Sunderland. That was a gutting blow for the 22-year-old who was given an opportunity on the first day of 2026 thanks, in part, to his performance against Saturday's visitors Brentford.
In the Carabao Cup clash in December, Savinho scored his most recent goal for the Blues in a 2-0 win at the Etihad Stadium. It was only the winger's second full 90 minutes of the season. The other came against Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium in October.
After the goal, Guardiola praised Savinho. "What I like from Savinho is always he is digging, go, go, go all the time," he said. "The final decision can be better, of course, but always I reward this work ethic and especially because he goes and he goes all the time.
"Like Jeremy [Doku] when he has the ball he goes and goes. Last season he played a lot of minutes with us.
"Sometimes we don’t play with a proper wingers. We play slightly differently in the last seasons, maybe play less. But we trust him a lot, he’s young.
"He can play right and left side, both sides. He’s a player who is so aggressive. And in time, we improve the final decision and will become a top, top-class player."
Unfortunately for Savinho, he did not push on from there. But this weekend could be the time to give the Brazilian another try.
On Monday, Doku impressed with his directness. If it wasn't for the Belgian's willingness to run at the defence and try to make something happen, City's title dream would be in tatters.
Savinho could offer something similar on the right flank. Antoine Semenyo has gone off the boil in recent weeks and City need to freshen things up. It would be a risk to take Semenyo, a player who has been in red hot form for the majority of the season, out of the team, but perhaps Guardiola needs to take a gamble.
Given his showing against Brentford earlier this season and the need to freshen things up, Savinho deserves a chance to make a difference for the Blues.
Content cannot be displayed without consent