To Hull and back: Guardiola cancels City’s Christmas

Coverage of today’s game between Hull City and Man City will be shown live on Sky Sports 1 HD (Sky HD channel 409, Virgin 511 and BT TV 402), with the pre-match build-up starting at 5pm and kick-off set for 5.15pm.

“We are going to Southampton to play against them”.

Toure converted a penalty kick in the 72nd minute after Raheem Sterling was tripped by Andrew Robertson as the England winger drove into the area.

However, it didn’t all start so well for Guardiola as he lost defender John Stones to injury and will hope that it isn’t a serious setback as he can do without being without another defender in the weeks ahead. It was at this point that Man City finally began to gain momentum as Hull’s previous energy ebbed.

Defender Harry Maguire hooked one ambitious volley over, while striker Dieumerci Mbokani was proving a handful for City’s defence.

City almost broke the deadlock 10 minutes into the second half but Kevin De Bruyne’s curling effort crashed against the woodwork.

Sterling, 22, has been criticised by some pundits for not scoring enough goals, despite finishing with 11 in each of his last two seasons.

Hull midfielder Ryan Mason is expected to shake off a knock in time for the Boxing Day visit of Manchester City.

Of Hull’s 14 Premier League goals this season, Robert Snodgrass has had a hand in half of these. And when it came to the penalty he was the coolest person in the stadium. He was replaced by Aleksander Kolarov.

De Bruyne and Iheanacho threatened with half chances before Sterling was awarded the penalty and Toure convincingly buried his shot to the goalkeeper’s right.

Yaya Toure has scored all ten of his Premier League penalities – which is the best record in the English top flight.

Guardiola also talked up Sterling’s versatility for City, who sit third in the Premier League and seven points behind leaders Chelsea.

City are without the suspended Sergio Aguero once again but Guardiola chose to do without hot young striking talent Kelechi Iheanancho last weekend in favour of his midfield talents. “Every game we play is like a final”.