Manchester City Set to Take on Swindon Town in 3rd Round of FA Cup.

Ahead of next week’s match against Premier League title-contenders Chelsea, Manchester City will take a trip west of London to face Swindon Town in the third round of The Emirates FA Cup.

City automatically qualified to the third round by being a club within the top two tiers of English Football. For Swindon however, this will be their third match in this year’s competition, having previously beaten fellow League Two side Walsall 2-1, and League One side Crewe Alexandra 3-0.

More recently, Swindon has been rather streaky, winning two of their previous five matches, coming into this match beating Northampton Town 5-2, with forward Harry McKirdy netting four goals.

In contrast, the blues have been in impeccable form. By the start of their match, it will be one month without defeat for City. Pep Guardiola’s side will go into the match off the back of a late win against Arsenal in the Premier League onNew Years’ Day.

Historically, when looking at how Pep Guardiola has made his starting XI in the third round, it generally consists of the usual stars alongside some reserves players such as starting Zack Steffen over Ederson.

This year may or may not stay consistent with that, however, City will go into the match without forward Riyad Mahrez, who will be playing for the Algerian National Team in the Africa Cup of Nations.

Similarly, Swindon will be without their goalkeeper Joe Wollacot as he will be away playing for the Ghanaian National Team.

The match will kick-off at 20:00 GMT and 3:00 PM EST on Jan. 7 and can be watched in the UK on ITV1 and in the US on ESPN+.