Leicester and Man City play to scoreless draw

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini insists he still has hope that captain Vincent Kompany will be able to make a full recovery in order to play completely free of his recurring calf problem.

Kompany sustained a 13th separate calf injury since joining City in August 2008 when he limped off against Sunderland on Boxing Day.

“We are three points behind the leaders and I hope we are going to compete strongly with a very good second half of the season”. “It’s hard for me to answer these questions because I repeat again, I am not a doctor”, he said. But for me the best thing from the last game at Leicester (0-0) was not the clean sheet but that we continued playing the same way as we had done in the previous two matches.

One of the most unpredictable Premier League seasons for years can be summed up by comparing pre-season odds to the numbers now at the halfway stage – with Leicester City’s title odds slashed from 5,000-1 to 14-1 after their stunning start.

“We have a season and it’s important to have the amount of points you need to win the title”.

He added: “We are in a good position”.

But despite showing signs of defensive robustness, City still have an issue with their away form, having not won a league match since beating Crystal Palace 1-0 on September 12.

“I said when we lost to Arsenal that we improve a lot”.

“I don’t think it’s psychological”.

“I wanted to see how my players responded after the Liverpool defeat and they responded well”.

“That’s why I repeat, not happy but not disappointed also because we played well but we couldn’t score”.

Marc Albrighton admits winning the Premier League would be “unbelievable” but Claudio Ranieri still refuses to contemplate the prospect.

Do you think City will miss Kompany? “But without him, we must continue to defend as did tonight”.

“We didn’t win at Arsenal but I don’t think we played a bad game”.

Their 2.15 points per game beat Arsenal’s 2.13 and Middlesbrough’s 2.02 – the only three teams to earn more than two points per game in 2015. We are very strong at home. We’re just going to take it easy, stay grounded and look forward to the next game. Marc Albrighton, sliding in at the far post, just failed to get on the end of a delightful low curling centre from Christian Fuchs that went across the face of the goal.