Manchester City face injury crisis with fresh blows to Toure and Kompany
David Silva, Eliaquim Mangala and Fabian Delph are others who are already sidelined
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Your support makes all the difference.Manchester City will go to Borussia Mönchengladbach for this week’s crunch Champions League tie facing a crisis of form and fitness. Yesterday they lost 4-1 to Tottenham Hotspur – City’s third defeat in 11 days – while Vincent Kompany and Yaya Touré joined a growing injury list.
Manager Manuel Pellegrini said afterwards that he did not expect Kompany, who injured a calf in the warm-up, to be fit for the trip to Germany, while Touré, who picked up a hamstring strain, will be assessed by City’s medical staff.
The injured David Silva, Eliaquim Mangala, Gaël Clichy, Fabien Delph and Wilfried Bony were already absent for City yesterday, while Joe Hart, recovering from a back problem, was on the bench.
After losing 2-1 at home to Juventus and West Ham prior to yesterday’s loss, City go to Germany seeking a win to keep them in the Champions League reckoning as much as to boost morale.
When asked if he thought Kompany would be fit for Germany, Pellegrini said: “I don’t think so.”
The manager declined to complain about the referee Mark Clattenburg allowing two Spurs goals that were offside. “Maybe some part is a refereeing mistake,” he said, “but another part is also a mistake of our defence.”
Indeed, it was a serious blow to City’s title credentials, compounded by the fact that Manchester rivals United moved top of the Premier League.
Meanwhile, Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino hailed the team’s best performance of the season, a third consecutive Premier League win made sweeter by Harry Kane scoring his long-awaited first goal of the season.
“This was a great victory for us, I am very pleased with the effort from our players,” said Pochettino. “We were the younger team, the potential is massive, but we must keep our feet on the grass.”
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