Manuel Pellegrini has challenged his Manchester City players to show they can cope without Yaya Toure as the Premier League champions try to keep pace with leaders Chelsea.
Pellegrini’s second placed side are level on points with the Blues ahead of Saturday’s trip to face Everton, but they will be without the dynamic presence of Toure at Goodison Park.
Toure will be away on African Cup of Nations duty with Ivory Coast for several weeks, depriving City of their most influential midfielder at a crucial moment in the title race. Continue..
With Chelsea having squandered an eight-point lead over City, Pellegrini knows Jose Mourinho’s men are vulnerable but being without Toure is a blow to the Chilean’s hopes of overhauling the west Londoners.
“It is a very important player,” said Pellegrini. “We cannot say it doesn’t matter that Yaya is not here.
“The same thing happens without Edin Dzeko, Sergio Aguero, David Silva, all the players that for different reasons could not be involved in recent games.
“But we have a squad that must play and work in the way we normally do.”
Loic Remy insists Chelsea remain on course to make a clean sweep of all the major prizes despite their spluttering form over the festive period.
Mourinho’s side allowed City to draw level on points with them after a draw at Southampton and a 5-3 defeat at Tottenham.
A 3-0 victory over Watford last weekend secured their place in the FA Cup fourth round, but it took second-half substitutes Diego Costa and Willian to ignite a flat performance.
With critics suggesting Chelsea are beginning to lose momentum in their bid to win the Premier League,Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup, French striker Remy hit back ahead of the Blues’ home fixture against managerless Newcastle on Saturday.
“The mood is really positive. We are still focused on all the targets. Every team will be in trouble at some time and I hope ours is behind us now with the last two games,” Remy told Standard Sport.
“There is no problem inside the camp, the players are still happy at training. We have shown everyone that we can react after two bad results.
“Was our confidence badly affected by what happened at Tottenham? No. We are still top of the league.”
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