Maresca sweats on Guehi and Anderson fitness ahead of Liverpool and PSG double-header

Enzo Maresca is bracing for one of City’s most demanding weeks of the season — a Premier League visit to Liverpool on Sunday followed by a home Champions League tie against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday — with serious doubts over how fresh his key England internationals will be when they return.

Marc Guehi and Elliot Anderson have both started all three England fixtures during an unusually long four-game international window, and both are expected to be among the first names on Maresca’s teamsheet for at least the Anfield fixture. The City manager would prefer to see them rested for Tuesday’s final England game, but that decision rests entirely with Thomas Tuchel.

The concern is not abstract. Anderson, who joined City from Nottingham Forest, has barely stopped playing since last season — he was ever-present as Forest combined Premier League survival with a Europa League semi-final run, then became a fixture in the England squad. His 20th international cap, earned during the 7-0 win over Croatia, came just 392 days after his first, faster than any England player in history. The achievement is a testament to his quality, but it also underlines how relentlessly he has been used.

Guehi, who moved from Crystal Palace midway through last season, has been City’s most consistent defender and faces a similarly punishing schedule. Both players entered this international window among the highest minute-accumulators in the England squad since the start of last season.

The situation is compounded by what City have already witnessed elsewhere in this break. Erling Haaland asked to be substituted during Norway’s match on Sunday, and while coach Stale Solbakken played down the significance of the moment, the striker will have little time to recover before City need him at Anfield. Antoine Semenyo and Nico O’Reilly have also raised concerns after heavy workloads, reinforcing Maresca’s view that players who endured the longest campaigns last year are most vulnerable to breaking down.

All of this arrives against a backdrop of wider turbulence at the club following recent guilty verdicts in City’s long-running Premier League charges case. Getting Guehi and Anderson back fit and ready would represent one of the few straightforward pieces of good news Maresca has had in recent weeks.