Manuel Pellegrini has urged Manchester City to believe they can win without Yaya Touré after Sunday’s defeat to Arsenal became a fourth league game they have failed to do so in his absence.
Touré is away with Ivory Coast at the Africa Cup of Nations so missed the 2-0 defeat, and was also not in the City sides that could only draw with Arsenal (in the reverse fixture), Everton and Burnley earlier this season.
After Saturday’s visit of Middlesbrough in the FA Cup City travel to Chelsea next in the league, on 31 January. With the loss to Arsenal allowing José Mourinho’s team to stretch their lead to five points Pellegrini admitted the match at Stamford Bridge is key to City’s hopes of defending the title.
While Touré will be unavailable until next month, Pellegrini urged City to be positive until the 31-year-old returns. “He is very important player for us,” the manager said. “But for the moment we must continue playing and not thinking it is impossible to win without him because I don’t think this team depends on just one player.”
Pellegrini also denied jet-lag may affect City in the fourth-round tie with Middlesbrough despite the Chilean deciding to remain in Abu Dhabi an extra day rather than return on Thursday evening from the club’s warm-weather break. The manager was given the option to come back earlier but now his players will not land until around 7pm on Friday following a seven-hour flightthey returned last night instead.
Asked if there was any risk in arriving back in Manchester less than 24 hours before Saturday’s 3pm kick-off, Pellegrini said: “No I don’t think so. We have prepared for it and we will arrive back at the CFA [City Football Academy] and have our pre-match meeting there. And the way the hours of difference and direction we fly across time zones will help too.
“We analysed this before we decided to come here. There is just four hours difference which we gain so we don’t have any jet lag. We will have the meeting at CFA the night before, and I don’t think we will have any problems. We came here to have a break and do different kind of work. We play a lot of games in January, and it has been very useful for the team to come here and I hope when we return we will see the benefit of it.”
Frank Lampard suffered a hip injury in City’s 2-0 friendly win over Hamburg in the emirate on Wednesday. While he suffered the problem in the warm-up and was then taken off after starting the game there is a chance the midfielder may be available for Middlesbrough. “We will see if he can play on Saturday,” the Chilean said. “[It’s] not an important injury and we hope he will be OK.”
Middlesbrough are second in the Championship, only a point from the leaders Bournemouth, and Pellegrini is braced for a difficult match. “I expect a very good game. They are in a very good position in the Championship,” he said. “They are working with a very good manager in [Aitor] Karanka. I know him well and I am sure that if we don’t play with 100 % intensity and concentration we are going to have problems to qualify to the next stage of the FA Cup. So we need to play a good game against a good team who are fighting to be promoted to the Premier League.
“When I say that we try to play in every competition the same way this is true. Last year we tried to do it and win all the three titles, but we lost in the quarter-final against Wigan. This year we are now not playing in the Capital One Cup so we will try to reach the final of the FA Cup, the most traditional competition in England. And for our club it is very important.
“You always hear in your life about the FA Cup. That the whole country is involved in it from the lowest levels. It is very important to win it.”
