Manchester City’s Manuel Pellegrini questions Chelsea’s staying power

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/dec/19/manchester-city-manuel-pellegrini-chelsea

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Manuel Pellegrini has questioned whether Chelsea can maintain their title challenge in the second half of the season, pointing to how Arsenal faltered last term in the new year. Arsène Wenger’s side led the table by a point on 1 January and by two on 3 February yet by 25 March Arsène Wenger’s side had slipped to six points from the top, a gap they never recovered, finishing fourth.

City trail Chelsea by only three points, with the deficit having been as much as eight. The manager was asked if the champions will have to be better than last year to defend the title. “I think Arsenal had a very similar number of points last season as Chelsea have now at this moment,” he said of their 39 points. “So we’ll see what happens in the second half and how many points you need to win.”

Pellegrini disputed the notion that José Mourinho’s side possess more staying power now than Wenger’s team did. “We don’t know. Maybe Arsenal last season couldn’t do it in the second half but we don’t know what Chelsea will do this year. I think that we must try and think about our team and not the others,” he said.

Pellegrini has all of his three frontline strikers absent for Saturday’s visit of Crystal Palace. Sergio Agüero has a knee injury, Edin Dzeko a calf complaint and Stevan Jovetic a hamstring problem. Yet the Chilean denied this gives him a crisis in his goalscoring department. “It is not a crisis,” he said. “I think we are very unlucky to have the three strikers at the same moments with different injuries. It is not a thing you think can happen before the season. The same thing happened with Newcastle, with three goalkeepers. It is very unlucky and you must try and find a solution in a different way.”

Asked about when the strikers would return, Pellegrini said: “We will see. Maybe Stevan Jovetic can be fit next week. The other two I don’t think will be able to play this year.

“It is not a normal situation. Maybe in this season we have a lot of things so we don’t have the four strikers we had last year. Maybe we would be unlucky and the fourth striker would be injured also. It’s not a thing that I want to talk more about. We have to have the solution and not try to complain.”

Pellegrini may decide to start the 18-year-old José Ángel Pozo for a second consecutive game. The Spanish forward has made only three Premier League appearances. But would the manager ever consider a false No9 approach? “It is a system you can play,” he said. “Maybe it is not one I prefer to play but more than a system this team always have a lot of different players who are scoring, our full-backs, our midfielders. So it is important to have a massive arrival to the other box, so we have different options, with shooting and different things.”

Vincent Kompany is also not available to face Palace. “Vincent is recovering from both of his injuries, his hamstring and his calf. He is improving but he is not fit,” said the manager.