Deposed Champions Manchester City will have to make do without Yaya Toure, Vincent Kompany and Stevan Jovetic for the trip to Tottenham on Sunday.
Now that only Arsenal can catch Chelsea in the slimmest of scenarios to snatch City’s title from the Stamford Bridge club, Pellegrini reflected on Chelsea’s consistent run to the title and promised to try for the title again.
“I work with all the players every day, it’s not a shame to be in second place in a bad season. That’s not to say we are happy but we are working in the right way and we must arrange some things to try and win the title again next season.” said Pellegrini.
Pellegrini also offered praise to “Chelsea’s owners” for investing heavily in players every year, perhaps a hint towards further squad building required.
Toure will also be doubtful for the home game against QPR the week after after sustaining a hamstring injury during the 3-2 win over Aston Villa last week.
Club captain Vincent Kompany might miss the rest of the season after sustaining a muscle injury the week before although Eliaquim Mangala has slotted in alongside Martin Demichelis for some valuable game time in his debut Premier League season.
Pellegrini has backed the young French defender to make his mark after a shaky start:
“Every game he’s playing he is improving and settling in. He’s a young player and we continue to trust in what he can do because he’s a good player.” said Pellegrini.
And injury-hit Stevan Jovetic, heavily linked with a departure from the Etihad in the summer, has also sustained a muscle injury although his impact this season has been limited.
There could be a lot of transfer movement this summer for City as a variety of names have been linked with exits from the Etihad this season, from players like James Milner to Elite Development Squad coach Patrick Vieira who was linked to a move to Marseille recently.
Very few of the French legend’s charges have been given game time with the first team at City, and while Spurs have a clutch of youth players in their first team – most notably England striker Harry Kane – Pellegrini has been reluctant to use the locally nurtured talent who made it to the final of the FA Youth Cup which was subsequently won by Chelsea.
The Chilean chose to namecheck Kelechi Iheanacho, who has spent much of the early part of the year injured, but admitted it hasn’t been easy for young players to break into the first team squad although things could be looking rosier in the future.
“We have three or four players that might be in the first team soon.” said Pellegrini.
One senior player who has also had an injury hit few weeks this season but should be available on Sunday is the Premier League top scorer (with 21 league goals to his name so far this season) Sergio Aguero.
City manager Manuel Pellegrini added that Aguero’s special training regime has worked despite his continued injury problems this season and admitted that he couldn’t understand why Aguero had been omitted from the PFA Team of the Year.
“Kun is a very important player. I think that this year he hasn’t had any muscle problems. He has had knee problems but that is bad luck.
“It was important for him to make a good pre-season after the World Cup because he came to us only a few days before the Community Shield and the Premier League.
Pellegrini also highlighted mentioned this year’s Copa America tournament which could end for finalists at the end of June although early elimination could make City’s South American players eligible to join their pre-season tour to Australia in July 2015.