Elano dropped by Sven

Elano has been left on the bench by Sven-Goran Eriksson tonight as Manchester City looked to maintain their 100% Premier League home record by beating Blackburn at Eastlands.

Although Elano had officially been "rested", with Eriksson claiming the playmaker is "not 1000%", his recent performances have not reached the superb level he produced earlier in the season and Vedran Corluka has been handed a midfield berth instead.

Blackburn come into the game on the back of a poor run of just one win in eight, but do have an excellent record against City, triumphing on each of their last five meetings.

Man City: Hart, Onuoha, Dunne, Richards, Ball, Corluka, Gelson, Ireland, Petrov, Bianchi, Vassell.

Subs: Isaksson, Geovanni, Elano, Hamann, Garrido.

Blackburn: Friedel, Khizanishvili, Nelsen, Samba, Berner, Emerton, Reid, Dunn, Pedersen, Bentley, Santa Cruz.

Subs: Brown, Kerimoglu, McCarthy, Olsson, Roberts.

Referee: Howard Webb (S Yorkshire).