MANUEL Pellegrini admits Manchester City’s injury-hit squad has been affected by their multiple-trophy quest after they went down 2-0 to Stoke at the Britannia Stadium.
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But Pellegrini said: “We made the decision last year because we had three players injured and Kelechi (Iheanacho) was one year younger and he was not the player he is today”. We must continue with the same 13 or 14 players.
“In this game we are playing with the same players in the last three games – maybe it’s the reason why we didn’t play with the energy that we need to win”.
But, judging by Manchester City’s record for conceding when captain Vincent Kompany is away, that might not be an unfair assessment.
In other matches, Watford continued its fine return to the top division with a 2-0 home win over Norwich, while bottom side Aston Villa grabbed a valuable point in the 1-1 draw at Southampton.
“Nobody was able to walk off the pitch with an excuse”. In fact, they never woke up throughout 90 nightmare minutes, culminating in Manchester City’s worst performance for many a Blue moon.
Stoke could have won the game more comfortably, with Arnautovic squandering several chances to complete his hat-trick, and produced some scintillating football despite the swirling wind at the Britannia Stadium.
City applied some pressure in the second half, but Butland, Hart’s deputy with England, was rarely called into action as Mark Hughes’s men dug in for a resonant victory.
The coach gave us some things that we had to use in the game and we did very well.
It was the combination of the two wingers Shaqiri and Arnautovic that did the magic. We didn’t defend well, but all the team must be involved in the defending.
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Despite the unusually high number of injuries his squad has suffered this season, Pellegrini refused to blame his medical staff, saying the intensity of the Premier League makes them hard to avoid. There’s still plenty of the Tony Pulis Stoke to be found along the River Trent, but Hughes has also brought some of the same style as the team he once had at Manchester City to it as well, the same blend of flair and dogged determination that helped set them on the path to be a two-time title victor in recent years.
