Champions Manchester City find themselves in the unfamiliar position of fourth place in the Premier League table heading into this weekend's clash with Fulham
Pep Guardiola and his players will be particularly wary of the opponents considering that their only dropped points of the campaign so far came at the hands of a newly-promoted side not afraid to attack last season's runaway title winners.
Guardiola has chopped and changed his formation on a couple of occasions already this season, and more rotation is expected heading into a packed fixture schedule.
Here, Sports Mole looks at how City could line up for the visit of the Cottagers.
Out: Kevin De Bruyne (knee), Claudio Bravo (Achilles), Eliaquim Mangala (knee)
Doubtful: Raheem Sterling (back), Danilo (ankle)
Guardiola has opted for the more attacking option of starting both Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus in both home games so far this season, and he could deploy the duo again this weekend.
However, the Spaniard has switched from a back three to a back four in those two home matches as well, so Fulham will need to prepare for the possibility of Benjamin Mendy and Kyle Walker attacking from either full-back or wing-back.
Should it be the three-at-the-back option then captain Vincent Kompany could return to the team ahead of the out-of-favour Nicolas Otamendi, while that would also create another central midfield role for Ilkay Gundogan.
Sterling's back injury could force Guardiola's hand in that regard, although the likes of Riyad Mahrez, Bernardo Silva and Leroy Sane provide perfectly adequate backup out wide should he stick with the same formation as the one he used last time out.
> Click here to see how Fulham could line up for this fixture
Barney Corkhill
