City’s Kompany Set For Another Month Out

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany will be out with a calf injury for another “three or four” weeks, manager Manuel Pellegrini says.

The most irrelevant goal of Saturday’s game, as Fabio Borini reduced the deficit, nevertheless had a statistical significance: Kompany has not started 17 matches this season and City have not kept a clean sheet in any of them.

The shine was taken off City’s 4-1 victory somewhat when defender Kompany was forced off just nine minutes into his comeback having suffered a recurrence of his calf problem.

“If you review how many games we played over the last two seasons, Vincent plays a maximum 70% of the season”, said Pellegrini.

“I am not a doctor but normally with a muscle injury less than three or four weeks is very hard, especially on the calf”.

Speaking before Arsenal’s 2-0 win against Bournemouth which moved them above the Foxes to the top of the league, Pellegrini said: “Leicester are top of the table because they deserve to be”. We’ve played the whole season with an average of six players injured in every game.

“We can not think that all the mistakes that happen do so just because Vincent isn’t playing”.

The Belgian will be assessed by the club’s medical team in a bid to discover the extent of the latest setback, but will miss Tuesday’s clash at title rivals Leicester and is expected to face another long spell on the sidelines.

“We know him and we know from before that he needs two or three games to return to his normal performance, ” said the City boss. I am sure that in the second round we are going to be involved till the end for the fight for the title.

“What we are doing is unbelievable”, the Italian said.

Manchester City’s Yaya Toure, right, celebrates scoring against Sunderland with teammate David Silva during the English Premier League soccer match at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester, England, Saturday Dec. 26, 2015. We are in the semi-finals of the Capital One Cup and through in the Champions League so I don’t think it is important to split it into home and away.

Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez were both subbed off early at Liverpool but they should be back tonight and the pair will be relishing the chance to go up against a City defence who are again without Vincent Kompany.

“It’s not easy for us but we want to fight with everybody”.