View: Everton will be rubbing their hands together after update on Manchester City star today

Everton will be rubbing their hands together after Pep Guardiola confirmed that John Stones is ruled out when the clubs meet on Thursday.

The former Blues star was substituted at half-time of the 2-1 loss to Aston Villa on Saturday (22 December) and will not feature against his former side on Boxing Day (26 December).

Sean Dyche’s men are unbeaten in their last three Premier League matches and will be confident of getting a result against a City side that won just one of their last 12 games in all competitions.

Guardiola confirmed that the 30-year-old will miss the clash at the Etihad in his pre-match press conference, saying: “Still I didn’t talk with the doctors, but apparently if he could not continue in the second-half in Villa Park, it’s because he will not be ready.”

Everton will think they can beat City without Stones

The Toffees will be confident of ending their winless run against the Citizens which stretches back to Guardiola’s first season in English football, a whopping 15 matches.

The defending champions have lost nine of their last 12 matches, the same amount of defeats as they had suffered in their previous 106 games before that run.

The Blues are currently on a high following the completion of the Friedkin Group’s takeover on Thursday (19 December) and will be even more confident with Stones out.

The defender is a key asset in City’s passing out of the back, this is highlighted by the fact that he completed 100 per cent of his 59 passes and was accurate with 100 per cent of his six long balls in the defeat to Villa. [Fotmob]

Defensively, he made one recovery and was not involved in any duels during his 45-minute cameo at Villa Park but his numbers for the whole season are impressive.

In the Premier League this campaign, he has won 70 per cent of ground duels, ranking him in the top eight per cent and 66.7 per cent of aerial duels, which ranks him in the top 16 per cent.

The veteran will be a huge miss for an already deflated City side and the Blues need to take advantage and pile on the misery.

In other Everton news, shock news about a move to Sevilla has emerged for one Blues star.

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