Manuel Pellegrini was left counting the cost after Manchester City completed an outstanding few days’ work by winning 1-0 at Leicester. Frank Lampard scored the decisive goal in what was City’s fifth consecutive Premier League win, keeping them hot on the heels of Chelsea at the top of the table, but Pellegrini finds himself going into the hectic Christmas period without all three first-choice strikers, as well as his captain, Vincent Kompany.
Edin Dzeko pulled out of the game at the King Power Stadium before kick-off after picking up a calf injury. He joins his fellow strikers Sergio Agüero and Stevan Jovetic on the sidelines, while Kompany had to leave the field 13 minutes before the end after pulling the hamstring that kept him out of action at Roma, where the midweek victory earned City qualification for the last 16 of the Champions League.
Pellegrini said: “It’s difficult to say exactly what has happened to both of them, but Vincent Kompany has the same problem with his hamstring that he had a few weeks ago, that’s why he didn’t play on Wednesday in Rome, and Edin Dzeko has a muscle injury in his calf, so maybe he will also be more than a couple of weeks out.
“Maybe we must find a reason why, it’s very unlucky to have three of them, especially all strikers, with a muscle injury, but we must try to resolve the problem. We must try to play another way and keep a clean sheet as we did today. It’s difficult because we have to play a lot of games in the last days of December.”
The situation is likely to increase Pellegrini’s determination to retain the services of Lampard, whose goal was his 175th in the Premier League. “He’s very important,” the Chilean said. “It was very important to refresh the team after what happened in Rome, it was very important to have physically and mentally a fresh team, and Frank was very useful.
“But keeping him is not linked to losing the strikers. He plays a different position. But he will not stay with us because we have injured strikers, he will stay with us because with or without them, he’s a very important player.”
Pellegrini knows the situation with Lampard, who is contracted to New York City from the beginning of January, must be resolved soon.
