PEP GUARDIOLA promised changes to his Manchester City line-up for the visit of Brentford in Wednesday’s League Cup quarter-final.

The game at the City of Manchester Stadium comes just 72 hours after City were made to battle for a hard-fought 3-0 win away against Crystal Palace to maintain their Premier League pursuit of Arsenal.

Guardiola’s side, who also beat Real Madrid 2-1 in the Bernabeu last week, face five league matches between December 20 and January 7, and with the title race likely to intensify in the new year, the visit of the Bees is seen as a moment for rest and rotation.

There is also the matter of the Africa Cup of Nations, with Rayan Ait-Nouri and Omar Marmoush set to depart to represent Algeria and Egypt respectively.

“We’ve lost now Rayan and Omar,” said Guardiola. “We have some injuries, like John [Stones] and Jeremy [Doku]. We will see. It’s one step to get to the semi-finals.

“Now we have less recovery, three days not four. The players that didn’t play recently are going to play.

“Some from the academy will play, because then we play West Ham [in the league on Saturday]. I’m not saying it’s not a priority getting to the semi-finals of the [League] Cup, but normally when we achieve it it’s when we have all the squad, no injuries, we can rotate the team.”

City won the League Cup four years in a row under Guardiola between 2018 and 2021 but have not reached the final since.

Despite having his hands full in the title race and in Europe, he insisted he was not taking his eye off tonight’s game.

“If you’re one game away from a semi-final, if you can take it, take it,” he said. “You never know when it’s coming back to you.”

Guardiola most recently made changes for the Champions League game against Bayer Leverkusen at home on November 25 which ended in a chastening 2-0 defeat.

In the team that night were Abdukodir Khusanov, Rico Lewis and Oscar Bobb, who have all had limited starts in the Premier League, and all could be in line to feature this evening.

Guardiola said the defeat was largely down to a lack of experience.

“In the Leverkusen game we missed a father figure on the pitch,” he said. “It’s not about the quality, it’s about being safe. Players that don’t have age for the process. Some players, it’s a process, they are young, not playing much.”

James Trafford – who Guardiola said is “absolutely” staying at the club in January – is set to start in goal.