Haaland is cleared. The rest of Manchester City’s walking wounded are not.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Maresca drew a sharp line between his captain and the three team-mates still fighting to make Villa Park.

“Erling is the only one 100 percent available. And the other three we need to wait for today’s session,” the head coach said, in comments reported by Sports Mole.

Haaland took a painful blow to his foot in the 3-2 win over Ipswich Town, was pictured with visible swelling, and was pulled from the warm-up before Wednesday’s 5-1 Champions League win over AEK Athens, prompting the first serious questions over his availability for the biggest Premier League fixture of the week.

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Kovačić, Nunes and O’Reilly to be assessed

Mateo Kovačić and Matheus Nunes picked up knocks at Ipswich, while Nico O’Reilly started against AEK Athens with a back problem and was taken off at the interval.

Their status will be decided late in the day.

“We have a session this afternoon. They can be all available or not. Yesterday, they were all improving, and we’ll see this afternoon,” Maresca said, in comments reported by City Xtra.

Seven wins from seven for Maresca

City arrive at Villa Park unbeaten in the Premier League: seven wins from seven, 21 points, three clear at the top. Maresca is the first manager in the competition’s history to win his opening seven matches in charge of a new club.

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Haaland is driving it. The striker has scored 12 goals in 10 appearances across all competitions this season, according to a Sports Mole preview.

Villa 14th despite Champions League run

Villa are the opposite story. Unai Emery’s side sit 14th in the Premier League with five points and have yet to win a home league game this season.

In Europe, they are flying. Tuesday’s 3-1 victory over Viking FK made it three wins from three in the Champions League and lifted them to second in the league phase.

Emery has described the challenge as adding Premier League consistency to Villa’s European form, speaking after the Viking win.

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Kick-off at Villa Park is at 12:30pm local time on Saturday.

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