Frank Lampard and Eliaquim Mangala are ready to make their Manchester City debuts as the defending champions prepare for a tough run of three matches in the next nine days, Manuel Pelligrini has confirmed.
Lampard has been training with City for a month since his surprise switch from their affiliate in New York, while Mangala has yet to play for the club following a £32 million move from FC Porto.
Both players may have a part to play in today’s game against Arsenal, the Champions league game with Bayern Munich and next weekend’s game against title favourites Chelsea.
Captain Vincent Kompany has been passed fit after suffering a calf problem while on international duty with Belgium, Brazilian midfielder Fernando will be side-lined for two weeks with a muscle injury and Stevan Jovetic is out of action after pulling his hamstring in training with Montenegro.
‘Frank is ready,’ said Pellegrini. ‘He has worked for about one month and he doesn’t have any problems. Mangala is working normally and is in the squad list also.
‘We have to play three games in a week so we will see if they play in these games. Both of them are ready to do it but I can’t say which games they will play or if they will play.
‘But we have Fernando injured. He has a muscle problem, maybe a couple of weeks more and also Stevan Jovetic. He came back from his national team with a problem in his hamstring.
‘All the rest of the players are fit. Vincent played 90 minutes for his national team and he works normally with the squad during the week here so he doesn’t have any problems.’
When asked about recently departed Alvaro Negredo, who made a move to Valencia during the summer transfer window, the City boss confirmed that the striker was the odd man out in his Champions League squad after fracturing a metatarsal in pre-season, and also wanted a return to Spain.
He said: ‘The decision for Negredo to go out was for two very important reasons – first of all, we had a restriction on the number of players we can use in the Champions League, we had one player more and in this case Alvaro was injured so he was not going to be on the list.
‘For him, it was also very important that he went back to Spain so I thought that was the best decision. But it all started with the restriction on the number of players.
‘It is one striker less of course, but we have Edin Dzeko, Sergio Aguero, Stevan Jovetic and other players we can use behind the strikers. There are other options.’
