Month: October 2013

Manchester City has to face Chelsea in an away Premier League game this weekend and they might have to go into such a vital game without their skipper Vincent Kompany.

Kompany has not completely recovered from his groin injury because of which he has been out of action since the last 20 days or so. However, his fitness is still being assessed and it hasn’t been officially announced that he would not be playing in that Chelsea game.

Manchester City has to face Chelsea in an away Premier League game this weekend and they might have to go into such a vital game without their skipper Vincent Kompany.

Kompany has not completely recovered from his groin injury because of which he has been out of action since the last 20 days or so. However, his fitness is still being assessed and it hasn’t been officially announced that he would not be playing in that Chelsea game.

The Chelsea winger and Kompany’s countryman, Eden Hazard, has said that if Kompany doesn’t manage to get fit in time, it’s going to weaken the City squad significantly. Chelsea are currently slim favourites on Unibet, the sportbet specialists.

Talking to the reporters yesterday, Hazard said, “Vincent is a vital part of City squad. Whenever he features for them, they generally end up on the winning side.”

“We all know how capable he is as a player and I consider myself lucky that I play alongside him in the Belgian team. You don’t want to be playing against such kind of players.”

However, Hazard also said that his team has got the ability to get better of City in Kompany’s presence as well.

The 22 years old Belgian winger said, “Our recent form has been pretty good. In the last couple of games, we have shown great temperament and hopefully, we will be able to continue the good work when we take on City this weekend.”

When asked about his experience of playing under the new manager Jose Mourinho so far, Hazard said, “He is immensely experienced and the young guys like me are extremely fortunate to have him as boss.”

“We are slowly settling down under him. He is a bit creative in his strategies and we are learning a lot from him.”

Ashley Cole might not be able to feature for England in their upcoming two World Cup qualifiers against Montenegro and Poland respectively as he discovered a rib injury while playing for his club Chelsea in the match against Norwich City yesterday.

Ashley Cole might not be able to feature for England in their upcoming two World Cup qualifiers against Montenegro and Poland respectively as he discovered a rib injury while playing for his club Chelsea in the match against Norwich City yesterday.

Cole was taken off in the 75th minute of the match against Norwich and at that point of time, he didn’t seem to be injured. His substitution was seen as a tactical ploy by the Chelsea management, but, talking to the reporters in the post match press conference, the Blues manager Jose Mourinho disclosed that Cole has complained of pain in his ribs and he will have a scan when the team returns to London.

Mourinho said, “When I took him off, I was not aware of his problem. I got to know about that later on.”

“His injury will be assessed when the team reaches London. A scan will make things clear. Hopefully, that’s a minor problem and he will not have to miss too many games.”

“I really want the English team to put up a good show in their upcoming World Cup qualifiers. So, I am hoping that Ashley is 100% fit.”

England will first face Montenegro on the 11th of this month and then, will take on Poland on 15th. Both the games will be played at the Wembley Stadium.

Almost all the regular players of the English side are fit for those two games. The only two guys who are unlikely to feature are Arsenal’s Theo Walcott who is suffering from stomach problem and Cole who injured his ribs yesterday.

England is at the top position in the Group H points table at the moment. They have won 4 out of their 8 games so far.