English Premier League: Manchester City look to topple Chelsea — even if for a day

Defending champions need to score four or more to go top of the table and build pressure on the Blues.

MANCHESTER: Manchester City have a chance to go top of the Premier League table, even if for a day, when they face Crystal Palace today as they trail leaders Chelsea by three points and a goal difference of four.

Chelsea play their match on Monday against Stoke, but the defending champions can build the pressure on Jose Mourinho’s men if they defeat Palace by a goal difference of +4.

However, City will be without influential forward Sergio Aguero as he recovers from a knee injury.

But manager Manuel Pellegrini remains confident that the Argentina international will be fit in time for City’s Champions League tie with Barcelona in February.

“Sergio has a torn ligament and I think it will be long before the Champions League tie against Barcelona, probably in the first weeks of January, that he will play,” said Pellegrini.

City are without all three of their main strikers at the moment, with Edin Dzeko (calf) and Stevan Jovetic (hamstring) also both set to be absent through injury this weekend.

Pellegrini is contemplating whether or not to use midfielders David Silva, Samir Nasri or James Milner out of position in attack against Palace, while 18-year-old forward Jose Angel Pozo remains another option.

“We will see what works and which players will play in that position,” said Pellegrini.

“At the moment, we are trying to keep our minds open and recover as soon as we can with all the players, because we have few strikers.”

Meanwhile, Palace boss Neil Warnock insists his side will travel to Manchester convinced they can dent second placed City’s hopes of catching leaders Chelsea.

The south London club have lost just one of their last five league games but remain in the thick of the relegation battle, positioned one point and two places above the bottom three.

“City are just hitting that form aren’t they? It’s always difficult to go to there with them being the champions as well and playing some wonderful football,” said Warnock.

Carrick hails Valencia as key to United revival

Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick has hailed Antonio Valencia as a key figure in Manchester United’s recent revival in the Premier League.

Louis van Gaal’s side travel to Aston Villa today looking to add to a six-match winning sequence that has lifted them to third in the table.

While forwards Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie and Juan Mata have earned plaudits for their match-winning goals in recent weeks, United midfielder Carrick believes Ecuador winger

Valencia deserves recognition as well for his performances in a relatively unfamiliar role at right-back.

“Antonio is a pure athlete, he is immense,” said Carrick. “He takes you up the pitch and defenders just back up because they know about his pace.”

“If he can go down the line, then he is pretty hard to catch.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2014.

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