Manchester City will be without David Silva as well as Sergio Agüero for the visit of Bournemouth on Saturday and Manuel Pellegrini confirmed the latter could be out for a fortnight, meaning his side will be under strength for the key games against Sevilla and Manchester United in the next week.
“Agüero has a muscle injury and I don’t think he will be back inside a month, and Silva came back from international duty with a kick on the ankle,” the City manager said of the Argentina and Spain players. “Like Aleksandar Kolarov, he could be out for two weeks.”
The better news for the league leaders is that Yaya Touré and Samir Nasri have both recovered, and Vincent Kompany may be available after playing for Belgium against Israel in midweek, though Pellegrini is far from happy that his captain was brought back from injury by his national side when there was no real need.
“We were happy for him to join up with his national squad, we would never prevent him from doing that, but we sent him with a medical note advising them not to play him,” Pellegrini said. “Belgium then said they could do whatever they wanted, which it seems is the case. No rules have been broken but perhaps some rules should be changed for the future. A player should not be allowed to appear for his national side if he has missed the last three games for his club. When you have been out for a month you need to prepare properly before you come back.”
Pellegrini will make his own assessment of Kompany’s fitness before deciding whether to play him in the Bournemouth game, which he is careful to stress may not be the foregone conclusion the league table might suggest. “It could be like the West Ham game,” he said, referring to an unforeseen home defeat earlier in the season. “Bournemouth have had two week to prepare for this game, and they have the advantage of working with their whole squad over that period.”
City, in contrast, have to wait for most of their squad to return from international engagements all over the world, and then make alternative arrangements when important players come back injured. At least Wilfried Bony is a ready made replacement for Agüero, even if he may not be at quite the level the Argentina striker reached in his last Premier League game when he demolished Newcastle United single-handed with five goals in 23 minutes.
“Wilfried has been unlucky since he joined the club, we know he is a very good striker but he has not been able to show it,” Pellegrini said. “He came back from the African Cup of Nations with a knee problem and could not really demonstrate what he could do last season, then he was ill at the start of this one.
“Now his chance might come, but I do not want to put all the responsibility on to one player. The movement of the team is what creates the chances for strikers to score, and we have to be at our best, playing with a high intensity, to win our next few matches. That is what is important, not just one player. We have a strong squad exactly for this reason, I think we will be able to cope.”
