Five Manchester City stars reportedly ABSENT from travelling squad to face Brighton

A list of Manchester City first-team stars are reportedly absent from the squad that has made the journey to Brighton for Wednesday night’s Premier League clash.

The newly-crowned Premier League champions – who lifted their third successive top-flight title on Sunday afternoon – make the journey to the south coast for their penultimate game of the 2022/23 first division calendar.

Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton are the opponents, who will be in a similar celebratory mood having booked their place in next season’s UEFA Europa League tournament following an outstanding Premier League campaign of their own.

With an FA Cup final against Manchester United, as well as a Champions League final against Inter, on the horizon next month, City boss Pep Guardiola faces the immediate challenge of resting and rotating his squad, whilst also keeping tempo and rhythm high.

As part of finding that balance, a report in the build-up to Brighton against Manchester City at the Amex Stadium has stated that five first-team names have been left out of the travelling party that have made the journey to the south coast this week.

According to information obtained by FPL Raptor on Twitter, Jack Grealish, Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji, and Aymeric Laporte have all not travelled with the Manchester City squad ahead of tonight’s game.

It is of course clarified that there remains a possibility of the aforementioned players having travelled separately, although that is described as ‘unlikely’.

After taking on the Seagulls at the Amex on Wednesday night, Manchester City are expected to return to the north-west for their final preparations for the last game of the Premier League season.

Pep Guardiola and his players will then once again make the journey south, as they take on Thomas Frank’s Brentford in the final game of the ongoing season, hoping to continue their ongoing winning run tonight and into Sunday’s contest.

Week-long breaks then split up the final day of the Premier League season, with the FA Cup final, before another empty week gives Pep Guardiola the perfect opportunity to finalise and perfect his masterplan for the 2023 Champions League final.