It seems Manchester City are going through somewhat of decent run right now. Successive victories, multiple goals and clean sheets have been the feature on the pitch in recent times. Off the pitch, however, it hasn’t been a good week.
Vincent Kompany, we were hoping, would be back at some point this week. In Pep’s press conference today though, it seems he will not feature until after the International break.
Fears over the severity of Benjamin Mendy’s injury were realised also this week. A ruptured ACL will keep him out until around the Champions League semi final stage. Today, news came that Sergio Aguero had also sustained injury, and would not be available for tomorrows game.
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Let me say this before I go any further. I do not blame Sergio Aguero for being in Amsterdam. Of course I wish the crash hadn’t happened, but it could have been worse and these things happen. You cannot begrudge a player spending his day off going to a concert. It may not have been the best of timing, with the Chelsea game less than 48 hoursaway. I might also question his taste in music, but other than that, I see nothing wrong with it.
For the player, it couldn’t have come at a worse time. Looking to become the clubs all-time top scorer the run of fixtures after the International break could certainly have seen him grab that record. The club will find out later on today just how bad the injury is and, therefore, how long he will be out of action.
From a purely club aspect, it shouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience. We have Gabby Jesus, who can certainly do a job for the blues, but our system doesn’t really rely on this. Our goals come from all over the park.
We are blessed with attacking talent with Sane and Sterling all contributing goals in the league so far this season, along with Jesus. It could also be a good opportunity for Phil Foden, or even Brahim Diaz to get a foothold in the side. For that reason I believe both Mendy and even Kompany will provide more of a headache for Guardiola as we are light at the back.
In other ways we are somewhat lucky with the timing of the injury. After the fixture at the Bridge tomorrow, we have an International break. Our next game will not be for another two weeks, when we welcome Stoke City to the Etihad.
Next: Unhelpful scheduling for Premier League top clubs
Other than Champions League, where he will probably miss both Napoli games, our next big test comes with the visit of Arsenal on November 5th. That’s not to belittle the threat of West Brom and Burnley but if we have to rely on Kun, we got problems.
Those two fixtures sandwich the Carabao Cup visit of Wolves but, let’s face it, Pep would probably have rotated for that game even with a fully fit side. Of course we would love to see him back as soon as possible, but with this run of fixtures, it could have been worse.