BOLTON striker El-Hadji Diouf is available again after suspension for the game at City.
Diouf, who has weighed in with five goals this season, looks likely to replace Kevin Davies, who is banned.
Defenders Tal Ben Haim and Ricardo Gardner are pushing for places in the starting line-up but Quinton Fortune is again ruled out with an Achilles injury.
City's England defender Micah Richards is expected to shake off a dead leg in time for the clash.
Claudio Reyna could come into contention following a hamstring injury while Dietmar Hamann remains sidelined with a back problem.
Bernardo Corradi is ruled out through suspension but Ben Thatcher returns to the squad following a ban.
Boss Stuart Pearce is ready for a tough game and said: "The system Bolton play works and you have to give Sam Allardyce credit for that.
"They have shown more consistency than Manchester City, that's for sure."
Manchester City: Weaver, Richards, Dunne, Distin, Jordan, Thatcher, Trabelsi, Barton, Reyna, Samaras, Vassell, Dickov, Isaksson, Ireland, Dabo, Onuoha, Beasley, M Mills, Miller, Hart.
Bolton Wanderers: Jaaskelainen, Hunt, Meite, Ben Haim, Faye, Pedersen, Gardner, Campo, Giannakopoulos, Nolan, Speed, Anelka, Diouf, Vaz Te, Al Habsi, Tal, Fojut, Smith.
Last season: City 0 Bolton 1
Key opponent: Joey Barton - City's top scorer and their driving force from midfield
Prediction: City 1 Bolton 1 - The Trotters are in good form, but City are bound to improve on their shocking display against Tottenham
Agree with the prediction? Have your say.
For all the latest sporting odds from Betfred, click here.
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City are just a SMALL club outside TRAFFORD. Bolton to win 3-1 oh great i just hear Mike Riley is the referee.he does not like city EHhhhh WHO DOES?
How big are bolton, your just a small club outside Manchester scraping 1-0 wins with penalties. Whats the attendance? about 18-19,000 home games, mmmmm says it all.
Wait a minute. Mike Riley doesn't like Bolton either. Remember Blackburn last year? Carling Cup Final against Middlesborough and there are more. I'm thinking he had a vab kebab in Bolton one night or something.
Ian you really sum up Citeh fans. So what if you are a bigger club with a bigger stadium in a bigger city? Don't you think you should be using these advantages to be better than us. It must really hurt you to continually lose to and finish below such a small club. Why do you think that is Ian?
What exactly have you lot won in the last twenty odd years to look down your nose at us?
I would love to beat you AGAIN just to smile at all the bitterness coming out. Citeh are a joke. Badly run, badly managed and with serious delusions of granduer. Hopefully Anelka will remind you of what you are missing as well. Dickov!! what a joke!
It should be quite a tough game against the massive's , but the Horwich based minnows should still get draw at the very least .
I would love to see Anelka scrore the winner .
rip off ticket prices, will cost your club in the long run!! your crowds are getting smaller week by week and greedy footballers and chairman are driving the working class supporter away from stadiums!!!
Fair comment Des.
Thanks to Chinese Television nearly all Bolton games are free to watch over the internet.
People are now getting a bit smarter, why pay over fifty quid for a couple of hours in the cold.
Bolton should try to follow Wigan and Blackburns idea of slashing addmission prices, if they ignore this gates could get down to less than 15000 punters.