Manchester City facing big defensive problems
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has said that his team are facing a defensive crisis ahead of their showdown with English Premier League pacesetters Chelsea on Saturday.
The clash against the defending champions at Stamford Bridge will provide Mancini and his men with the biggest test of their title credentials yet, but they will go into the match with just three recognised first-team defenders fully fit.
Vincent Kompany, Kolo Toure and Pablo Zabaletta are the defenders who are fit for action. Midfielder Gareth Barry may be drafted into the defence or his England international team-mate James Milner may be drafted into defence, but the fact remains that Mancini
is struggling for numbers.
Joleon Lescott, Aleksander Kolarov, Jerome Boateng and Micah Richards are injured, but Richards has a slim chance of being fit in time.
While the news that he has scant options from which to fill his back line was bad enough, the fact that Chelsea are in rampant goalscoring form will come as no consolation for the Italian.
Hopeful over Richards
He told The Mirror that: “We have big problems. I hope that Micah can recover. If not, I don’t know who can play left-back.”
The match is perhaps the tastiest of all this weekend’s fixtures as it pits big-spending City against the league leaders.
City are currently in fourth position in the league after picking up eight points from their five league matches so far. They have enjoyed a win over Wigan Athletic and an impressive 3-0 victory over Liverpool, but faltered against Tottenham Hotspur and
Blackburn Rovers, picking up a point from each match. They also suffered defeat at the hands of Sunderland.
Chelsea, on the other hand, have won all five of their league fixtures, scoring 21 goals in the process.
However, both teams are heading into the game on the back of a loss, having been dumped out of the Carling Cup this week. City were beaten 2-1 by West Bromwich Albion while Chelsea lost 4-3 at the hands of Newcastle United.
Tags: