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Sergio Aguero and Vincent Kompany fit
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David Silva and Eliaquim Mangala ruled out
Manchester City will be looking to return to winning ways in the Premier League tomorrow lunchtime when they travel to Tottenham.
“We are just thinking to recover the three points we lost at home [to West Ham] and we will try to continue at the top of the table.” said Pellegrini of the Spurs game.
Manuel Pellegrini will be without six players at White Hart Lane tomorrow. Eliaquim Mangala (groin) may return before the international break while David Silva (calf) will be checked on Sunday or Monday with the aim of getting him ready for City’s Champions League trip to Borussia Monchengladbach if possible.
Fabian Delph (hamstring) and Gael Clichy (ankle) are definitely out as are Wilfried Bony (muscle knock) and Kelechi Iheanacho (groin).
Pablo Zabaleta has returned to full training but is believed to be short of full match fitness after his knee injury.
Pellegrini was confident that City could overcome the recent setbacks and was delighted to confirm that Vincent Kompany, Joe Hart and Samir Nasri were available for selection tomorrow.
City missed their influential captain for the defeat against West Ham after he sustained an injury in the Juventus game last week.
Pellegrini said: “Kompany is important for the team, he has just recovered from his injury.
“He’s the captain and started the season very well, not only as a defender but he scored some very important goals also.”
He added: “I don’t think that we need to see that West Ham beat our team to understand that the Premier League is close every game. That’s why this is is a difficult league. Everyone in the Premiership has good players and important players.
“We started very well, maybe nobody in the media expected that we could lose against West Ham.
“Even after we won the first five games we never thought that it would be easy. This season or last season we thinking exactly in the same way – two or three balls can decide the score.
“So it’s very important for our team to be with the concentration and intensity and performance that you need in every game. If you don’t reach those standards you can lose against everyone.
“It’s important to know why we won those games, to understand that it’s not normal to win all the games because you will be beaten by some teams, but it’s important to trust in the way that we play the game.
“Both defeats that we had were maybe because we were not at 100% intensity especially in defending but we dominated those games.
Pellegrini will also be hoping that talismanic striker Sergio Aguero’s penalty during their Capital One Cup win at Sunderland on Wednesday night will have helped the Argentine play himself back into form with 74 minutes of game time just in time to face a club he has put ten goals past in seven games against the Londoners.
Aguero sustained an early knee injury at Crystal Palace a fortnight ago and wasn’t fully fit during City’s subsequent defeats against Juventus and West Ham.
He still looked off the pace against Sunderland in midweek despite scoring only his second goal of the season there although City manager Manuel Pellegrini was confident that Aguero would be back to “100%” this weekend.
He said: “Against sunderland he was practically 100% fit, he was an important player in the game and he participated in nearly all the goals. He scored a penalty and had some chances so I think for tomorrow he’s 100% fit.
“It’s always very important to have our best players at 100% but if they are not, we have a squad and other players who must do it.
“Normally Sergio scores goals, sometimes when he’s back from a long injury, like any player, he needs a couple of games to recover his normal performance but he’s a very quiet player with a lot of trust in the work that we do.
“It’s also important not only for Sergio but all the strikers in the team in the way that we play because all the players are scoring goals.
“It’s not a matter of confidence – we have other players scoring goals – so I don’t think Sergio needs help in this moment because hes not in a bad moment.
“I am absolutely sure that if he didn’t score in the last two games because he wasn’t 100% fit but against Sunderland he scored and participated in a lot of plays for our team.”
City have endured a mini injury crisis in recent weeks, losing two full backs on the eve of the new season with a succession of different injuries to other key players in the opening games of the season but still managed five straight wins in the league before the hiccups against West Ham and Juventus at home.
Pellegrini claimed to have had half his squad out with injury for the Sunderland game, but he still put out a strong starting XI and could only afford to give Fernandinho, who has been in sparkling form this term, a rest.
Injuries have certainly meant that the Chilean is still waiting to pick perhaps his strongest attacking front line but Kevin De Bruyne’s form in recent games a definite positive for City.
He said: “I am not surprised at his form, before we bought him, we knew a lot of games when he was in Germany.
“Maybe when he was last here in the Premier League [with Chelsea] he didn’t play many games but we know what he can give for our team and now he’s doing what we expect of him.
“He can play behind the striker and both wings so it doesn’t matter his position. What’s important is he has a very clear view of the pitch and can make important passes.”
Certainly, a fit and and in-form attack of Aguero, Silva, Sterling, and De Bruyne will be a difficult proposition for many Premier League defences this season – if City can deploy all four at the same time.