Manchester City face Borussia Monchengladbach in Champions League

Austria forward Arnautovic scored in the seventh and 15th minutes from assists by Xherdan Shaqiri as Stoke exploited poor defending by City, which was without Sergio Aguero, Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany because of injury.

“We can play two games without any problem”.

“The important players play so many games it is very hard not to be injured because they must continue playing in the worldwide break”.

Juventus – two points clear of the Premier League side and with a better head-to-head record – travel to Sevilla in their final group game.

The two teams come into this game in polar opposite form as Borussia just beat Bayern Munich at the weekend and are unbeaten in their last thirteen games.

Manchester City kick-off against Borussia Monchengladbach at the Etihad Stadium in the Champions League on Tuesday, December 8 at 19:45 local-time (18:45 AEDT).

The visitors’ disappointment was compounded when Fernando limped off with a hamstring injury late on, exacerbating the injury glut that has ripped the core from Pellegrini’s team.

“That’s how we should be playing and we’re not”.

“We hope but we will have to see how he improves in the next week”, he added.

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has rubbished claims that his side’s form is suffering because of the continued absence of Vincent Kompany, according to Eurosport.

“It’s not like the wind got up four seconds before kick-off – we knew what we were coming into and Stoke knew what they were coming in to”.

“On the day we were exceptional”, he said afterwards. “There have been too many games for the same players, but we need to make an important result [against Gladbach]”. “There are a lot of things in the future we are not thinking about”.

Our City fans are concerned as they believe it could prove detrimental to their Premier League and Champions League campaign, particularly with the race in the domestic league extremely tight. They are getting back on the trail now after a decent 3-1 win against Southampton last week with Fabian Delph getting his first goal for the Cityzens. “We have the knowledge that we have just taken on and beaten the best team in the world”. Besides their leaky defence, City have also had a few problems in attack.

“I don’t think we have to be always pessimistic about the draw”. Many have started comparing him to Tevez, but Juventus teammate Leonardo Bonucci warned against heaping too much expectation on the youngster’s shoulders.