Manchester City have seven players out injured for their visit to Tottenham Hotspur this afternoon, though Manuel Pellegrini is not unduly concerned because Vincent Kompany is back and Sergio Agüero and Kevin De Bruyne are fit and playing well.
The queue for the Etihad treatment room includes David Silva, Eliaquim Mangala, Gaël Clichy, Wilfried Bony, Fabian Delph, Kelechi Iheanacho and Pablo Zabaleta but Pellegrini believes his squad can cope. “You must have a strong squad nowadays, and we have enough players to take care of the situation,” the manager said. “That came in handy in the Capital One Cup game against Sunderland in the week. We wanted to name a strong squad anyway because we always want to do well in all competitions, but as it turned out it was simply a case of picking all the players who were available.”
Agüero, De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling scored in that 4-1 victory and Pellegrini is pleased to have his forward options all looking so sharp. Agüero missed most of the Champions League defeat by Juventus through injury and his manager is relieved that a striker with a good scoring record against Spurs is back to full fitness.
“Sergio is not carrying an injury or feeling the effects of one,” Pellegrini said. “Maybe he was not 100% in the game against West Ham but he was back to his best against Sunderland.” Agüero has not scored in the league since the Chelsea game more than a month ago but, according to his manager, he is not the sort of player whose confidence slumps in goalless periods.
“I see Sergio in training and his confidence is always high,” Pellegrini said. “I can’t really say how he might be affected by long periods without goals because I haven’t really seen that happen yet. When he plays he normally scores.”
De Bruyne managed to impress in the defeat by West Ham on his first start and showed Sunderland he will not require much time to adapt to the Premier League. Pellegrini is not surprised. “We saw a lot of Kevin before we bought him, we know exactly what he can do,” he said. “We know what he can give the team, what we want him to give the team, and he is doing what we expected. He has a clear view of the whole pitch and he can play in a number of forward positions.”
In City’s strongest lineup De Bruyne would play alongside Sterling and Silva in a forward three with Agüero on his own in front, though Silva’s calf injury has so far prevented that selection and the Belgian has found himself taking over much of the responsibility for creative distribution. He excelled against West Ham, even if it was in a losing cause.
“Hopefully we are over thatdefeat now,” Pellegrini said. “No matter how well you play it is impossible to win all your games because that is not what the Premier League is like. Almost any team in it can beat any other. The important thing is to keep on trusting in the way that you play. Maybe our intensity could still improve a little bit, especially when defending, but we have Vincent Kompany back and he has started the season very well.”
Pellegrini expects the title race to be close again this season possibly with only a couple of points in it, and says the days when one team could dominate the rest are over. “Maybe Manchester United did that in the past,” he said. “Then Chelsea for a while, but now there are too many good teams for it to happen. We felt we were unlucky against West Ham but they defended very well and they also won away at Arsenal and Liverpool. Not every team can do that but there are a lot of good teams in this division; too many for one club to run away with it.”
