Man City Pre-Chelsea Team News: Update On Aguero, Lampard, Dzeko + More

Defending champions Manchester City welcome Chelsea to the Etihad Stadium on Sunday for this weekends big Premier League clash.

Ahead of the game, Manuel Pellegrini has been speaking to the media today at his pre-match press conference and gave Man City’s official website a team news and injury update.

The bad news for City is that they will once again be without the services of striker Stevan Jovetic as he continues to recover from a hamstring injury that’s kept him out for the last two weeks.

Fernando will also be unavailable with the former Porto midfielder failing to recover from a groin problem that he picked up against Stoke City three weeks ago, so Fernandinho should continue in midfield.

Pellegrini also revealed that striker Edin Dzeko has been struggling with a minor back complaint but he hopes the Bosnian hitman will be passed fit to face Chelsea this weekend.

Otherwise Pellegrini has a fully-fit squad to choose from meaning that Sergio Aguero will start up front having been rested for Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to Bayern Munich as he continues to regain full fitness after a hamstring injury.

See Chelsea’s latest team news here

Eliaquim Mangala is now coming into contention after working on his fitness following his move from Porto in the summer and Pellegrini also confirmed that Chelsea legend Frank Lampard will be in the squad to face his former side.

He told the clubs website:

“The squad is okay. We continue with problems for Stevan Jovetic and Fernando and Edin Dzeko suffered a problem in his back after the game but I hope he will be okay for Sunday.

“Maybe Sergio in this moment is not ready to play three games in a row in just one week – that’s why I thought it was better for him and the squad for him not to play 90 minutes against Bayern.

“He is fresh for Sunday and I’m sure he will make a difference. When he is 100% fit, Sergio always makes a difference.

“Frank [Lampard] is part of our squad and tomorrow, I will give the squad list for that game. I’m sure he will be involved in that game as part of the squad.

“I don’t think it is a difficult situation for him. He didn’t continue at Chelsea because Chelsea didn’t want him – not because he wanted to come here to City.

“He is within his rights to continue playing football. He arrived here and we are very happy with him.

“There is no problem at all with Mangala. He is working with the squad.

“He started a little bit late with his preparation. The last game he played was in May but now he is ready and knows a lot of things about the way we play.”

City head into the game sitting five points adrift of the league leaders so defeat on Sunday would open up an eight point gap making it an extremely difficult task for Pellegrini’s men to catch Chelsea, even at  this early stage of the season, so they will be desperate to pick up a positive result.