Thegoalmac can reveal that Sami Nasri could make a surprise return to the Manchester City squad for Saturday’s heavyweight clash against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, Manuel Pellegrini has confirmed.
The
French midfielder has been sidelined since mid-January with a calf
injury and had been expected to miss three weeks, but he has recovered
quicker than expected.
Nasri could be named on the bench against
the league leaders, which would be a welcome boost due to the absence of
Yaya Toure. The former Arsenal man has replaced him with success
previously this season, as he scored and assisted against Roma when the
Ivory Coast star was suspended in the Champions League.
“Samir
has worked normally in the last couple of days. Maybe it's too soon but
we will see if he can be on the bench,” said Pellegrini at his pre-match
press conference.
“[Yaya is] an important player but we qualified against Roma and beat Bayern without him. Teams don’t depend on one player.”
Reigning
champions City are five points adrift of Chelsea, having lost last time
out against Arsenal, and despite the prospect of falling eight points
behind their rivals Pellegrini does not believe Saturday’s game will be
decisive in the race for the title.
“It's a very important game,
but not the game that will decide the title, because after that we have
45 points more to play for,” added the Chilean.
“Some years ago
we saw that when this club won the title when they were eight points
behind Manchester United [with six games to go].”
No comments:
Post a Comment