Manchester City pay heavy price as frantic festive period looms
Edin Dzeko, Sergio Aguero and skipper Vincent Kompany all likely to miss Christmas-New Year programme of five games in 15 days
Manchester City are in danger of facing the busy Christmas and New Year Premier League programme without their top strikers and captain as manager Manuel Pellegrini counted the cost of Saturday’s win at Leicester City.
Edin Dzeko, back-up to City’s injured striking totem Sergio Aguero, suffered a calf problem in the warm-up before the 1-0 win, while skipper Vincent Kompany limped off late in the game with a recurrence of his niggling hamstring injury.
It left Pellegrini admitting ruefully that all three would almost certainly miss the festive programme, which will see City play five games in 15 days.
Though there is also the possibility he could be without the injured Stevan Jovetic, Pellegrini was putting on a brave face as he said: “We won’t complain about injuries.”
It’s like something out of Swan Lake, it’s that blatant. Yet there’s some sort of excuse that they’ll find for it
With Kompany, returning on Saturday after missing three games through injury, and Aguero absolutely key as attacking and defensive lynchpins, it is a huge blow to be without them both, with Pellegrini’s striking options especially being tested.
