David Silva is available again for Manchester City after missing their past nine matches because of an ankle injury, with Manuel Pellegrini welcoming the Spaniard’s return following two successive defeats.
City’s 4-1 loss to Liverpool last Saturday was followed by the 1-0 defeat at Juventus on Wednesday in the Champions League. Southampton are the visitors to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday and Silva is fit to start.
“David is a very important player, the same as Kun [Sergio Agüero],” Pellegrini said. “David has a different way of playing. But as I said one of the merits of the squad was to play so many games without so many players. I hope both of them can recover their great performance [of earlier this season].
“Of course it was not a good week for us. We lost against Liverpool, and against Juventus maybe we improve a little bit but it was not a result we wanted. But we were already qualified for the next stage and that is important. A lot of people were disappointed not to be at the top of the group but the group is one game more. Juve have to play well against Sevilla.
“If you ask me I prefer to be qualified in this death group, and we qualified two games before. Now we have two games at home. If we win we are going to recover one position in the Premier League and we have the opportunity to win in the Capital One Cup [against Hull City next Tuesday].”
The manager confirmed Joe Hart’s hamstring injury will rule the goalkeeper out of those matches. “You never know because it is important the way he improves but maybe 10 days,” he said. “Eliaquim Mangala has a muscle problem in his hamstring. I hope he will be fit for Stoke [on Saturday week].”
Pep Guardiola, the Bayern Munich coach, was again linked on Thursday with taking over as City manager next summer. But Pellegrini said: “I don’t talk about rumours. It is a rumour we have had for the last two and a half years.”
There was also a report that Lionel Messi may consider leaving Barcelona for City for an £800,000-a-week salary. “I don’t talk about rumours. I think every manager in the world would like Lionel Messi,” Pellegrini said.
