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LONDON. — The English Premier League soccer title credentials of Pep Guardiola’s new-look Manchester City face an early-season examination tonight when Ronald Koeman’s ambitious Everton visit the Etihad Stadium. The match kicks-off at 9pm.

With around £150 million of new players on show, City made an assured start to the campaign by winning 2-0 at promoted Brighton and Hove Albion last weekend.

But Everton are also stronger, taking their spending past £130 million this week with a club-record £45 million move for Gylfi Sigurdsson, and they trounced City 4-0 when the teams last met in January.

“They are a top squad and they have important players,” said Guardiola, the City manager.

“They lost an important player, (Romelu) Lukaku, but they have a good group of players — midfield players and strikers. They are one of the best teams in the Premier League, I am pretty sure of that.” — AFP.