Manchester City’s top scorer Sergio Aguero was today ruled out of next Tuesday’s Manchester derby at Old Trafford with a hamstring injury.
City manager Manuel Pellegrini was slightly more positive about the Argentine striker’s chances of featuring against Arsenal next week but conceded that Aguero would only be risked if he had a full week of training behind him.
Aguero is City’s top scorer this season with 15 goals in the Barclays Premier League but has suffered a succession of muscular injuries which have hampered his goalscoring form. This hasn’t prevented the 25 year old forward being linked to Barcelona this season.
Pellegrini played down the ongoing rumours of a bid from Spain, and said: “Aguero is a Manchester City player. He is very happy here and the club is very happy to have him.”
Although City will be missing Aguero they will welcome back forgotten man Stevan Jovetic back into the match day squad for the game against Fulham tomorrow. The Montenegrin forward has been extremely unlucky with injuries, making only seven appearances in the Barclays Premier League this term, with just one league goal to his name.
After a shock defeat to Wigan in the FA Cup in the last home game at the Etihad, City will seek to get back on course to claw back Chelsea’s lead and try to reclaim the title with victory against Felix Magath’s Fulham strugglers tomorrow.
Pellegrini warned that no team was a pushover in the Barclays Premier League and was fully aware of Fulham’s potential to disrupt City’s title charge. The Chilean said:
“This is the start of a very important week and the most important game is Fulham because this is our next game.
“All the teams near the bottom, not only in the relegation zone but in the lower half of the table, have to try to add points from somewhere.
“Felix Magath’s teams always play with a lot of intensity. I am sure we need to work hard during the game if we want to win.
“We have experience here against Wigan, Palace and Stoke where each game it proved very difficult to score a goal, so there shouldn’t be anybody thinking Fulham it is not a tough game.”