Roberto Mancini has boldly predicted that Manchester City will win the Barclays Premier League title, despite facing a defensive crisis for the potentially critical clash at home to a resurgent Chelsea tonight.
Carlos Tévez is expected to make his first appearance for City for six months but Mancini, the City manager, is likely to be without Vincent Kompany and Joleon Lescott, his first-choice central defenders, through injury.
Chelsea have problems of their own, however, with John Terry, the captain, ruled out by a calf injury picked up in the Champions League victory over Napoli last week.
Terry made his presence felt at the end of that match, appearing to shout tactical instructions from the bench. Despite his injury, Terry has travelled to Manchester with the squad, raising the possibility that he will once again play a part from the sidelines alongside Roberto Di Matteo, the interim first-team coach.
City trail Manchester United by four points, having played one game fewer, but if they overcome Chelsea, then Stoke City on Saturday, they will be two points ahead of their rivals by the time the champions play Fulham at Old Trafford on Monday.
Advertisement
“We will win the title — or we will do everything we can to win the title,” Mancini said. “We have ten games [left] and need to win those ten games. I think we can do this. It changes nothing to be four points behind at this moment because we have another ten games, including a derby. We have everything in our hands.
“I am confident because the players are very strong and they know we have a big chance to win this title. I also think we deserve this after being top for seven months. We were top of the league until one week ago, so we don’t want to lose this chance to win.”
Di Matteo was equally confident and claimed that his squad had more than enough depth to cope with the absence of Terry as they attempt to secure Champions League qualification for next season. “We have a very good team and squad, a very strong one, and we’ve shown it over the years,” he said.
“The table shows that they [City] have won more games this season than we have. But I think we are very competitive.”
Chelsea have failed to win their past four away games in the league and City have a 100 per cent home record in the same competition, so it makes for a formidable task.
Advertisement
“We will try, yes, for sure,” Di Matteo added. “They’re obviously very strong at home, everybody knows that. But every run comes to an end. We’ve got a lot of players that have played many, many important games and that is a factor that is within our team.”
City may not be able to boast that kind of experience in central defence, Lescott being definitely out of the game with a groin problem that is likely to keep him sidelined for the match away to Stoke on Saturday.
Kompany, the captain, has been given only a 40 per cent chance of being fit because of a hamstring injury, meaning that Mancini may have to start with Stefan Savic and Kolo Touré.
Without Kompany and Lescott, City’s last league game ended in defeat away to Swansea City and they looked unconvincing in defence at home to Sporting Lisbon, when they were required to come from two goals down to win 3-2 in their Europa League round-of-16 second-leg tie, only to be eliminated on away goals.
Mancini admitted that the loss of both players “could be a big problem”, especially as Chelsea have rediscovered their form and Fernando Torres his goalscoring touch.