Enzo Maresca revealed that he has sent five Manchester City players on holiday this week, including Erling Haaland.

City lost their first Premier League game of the season at the weekend when they went down 2-1 to Aston Villa, although they are still top of the table on goal difference from Arsenal after winning their first seven league matches.

They now play high-flying Brighton twice in four days, with a last-16 Carabao Cup clash on Wednesday evening followed by a Premier League encounter on Saturday afternoon.

However, Maresca plans to ring the changes in the Carabao Cup, with a number of first-teamers set to be rested and that has allowed him to give a quintet of City’s regulars a few days off.

Haaland, Elliot Anderson, Josko Gvardiol, goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and captain Ruben Dias have all been urged to go on holiday by their boss ahead of a crucial weekend, while he also confirmed that back-up keeper Geronimo Rulli would start between the sticks on Wednesday.

“Yes [Rulli will play tomorrow],” Maresca said at his pre-match press conference on Tuesday. “He’s good. Before I arrived here, I had a conversation with him, he knows his role and that’s important.

“Day by day he is helping a lot. When he has played, he was good and tomorrow he will play again.

“After Villa, we gave five players three days off. Erling, Elliot, Gigio, Ruben and Josko. Go away on holiday. Three days off, go, come back. Full energy.

“In terms of how we plan, they [the games] are so close so we need to make some changes. We have one more session and then we decide for tomorrow.”

Despite the planned changes, Maresca is adamant he won’t be underestimating a Brighton side who are not only third in the Premier League but beat Manchester United in the previous round of the Carabao Cup and are yet concede a goal in the Conference League this season.

“First of all, they are doing very well so both games will be tough,” Maresca said. “They are very brave, aggressive and when they have the ball they attack with so many players.

“They create so many chances. We need to do the right things offensively and defensively.”

Marc Guehi has made a number of high-profile mistakes to start the new season – gifting world champions Spain an early goal against England during the last international break, giving away a penalty against Ipswich earlier this month and then being at fault for Villa’s opener at the weekend by mis-controlling a high ball out from the back and allowing Nicolas Jackson to pounce.

He also received a yellow card in the first half against Villa and was substituted at the break but Maresca claims he is delighted with the way the centre-back has bounced back in training since his latest error.

“I’m completely, especially in this moment, happy with Marc,” added Maresca. “The way he reacted was fantastic. He is a top guy, a leader, one of the captains and I love Marc to be honest.

“When they make some mistakes, they recognise. Marc is aware now.

“He’s played all minutes since the start of the season with us and the international team. In the last two weeks he didn’t play Champions League game, he played 45 minutes the other day so he’s completely okay.”