Wayne Bridge could be on the sidelines for two weeks after picking up a knee injury in Saturday's win over Chelsea.
The left-back was stretchered off in the second half after colliding with Belletti, but manager Mark Hughes has reported that after initially looking to have been seriously hurt, the player may only be out in the short-term.
Hughes said, "Wayne has opened up his medial ligaments, it could be a couple of weeks for him but we hope it's nothing more serious." Micah Richards was another to leave the fray during Saturday's intense and dramatic game, but he also is not thought to be a serious injury concern. "Micah gets discomfort in his knee on occasions," added Hughes, "his cartilage can nip him at times. If he twists his knee in a certain direction it compromises him, so if that happens he has to come off. Hopefully that will settle down."
...The boss thanks the fans...
Reflecting on a satisfying night's work, the boss was purring over a committed performance both on and off the pitch.
"It was a great day, a fantastic performance by the guys. We've been right on the money in the last few games, but we showed that you have to put a huge effort in to turn good performances into winning performances Each and every player worked exceptionally hard to make sure we won the game. "There were huge performances right through the team, and going behind to a team as accomplished as Chelsea is a big test. Your mentality and belief has to help you get something out of a game against the bigger sides in this league, but we never wavered. That was on the back of a difficult game on Wednesday, where we showed a lot of energy and emotion."I was a bit concerned about that, but I did not make wholesale changes as it's important to keep core elements of the team together. I thought they might fade a bit today, but they never did and they were magnificent. Fitness-wise and mentality-wise, we're in good shape."The fans have really driven us on, they understand what we are trying to do. If they see players in their shirt running and working hard for their team, and putting their necks on the line, they will respond to that. We had huge support on Wednesday which I thought would never be surpassed, but it was and I thought they were magnificent." OS
Manchester United, Arsenal and Manchester City are locked in a battle to land Wolfsburg's £10m striker Edin Dzeko.
The 6ft 4in Bosnian has the chance to prove to Sir Alex Ferguson he is the real deal on Tuesday.
Dzeko, 23, fired Wolf. Sunday Mirror
GARETH BARRY is facing a possible groin operation to cure a niggling injury that he has been managing for a few weeks.
The Manchester City midfielder was told he would not start the 2-2??? draw with Hull at Eastlands last weekend. But he was still asked to train on the Wednesday and Thursday before the game. He also played the full 90 minutes of City's 3-0 Carling Cup triumph over Arsenal on Wednesday. But the England star has been struggling for several weeks and is now being monitored by City's medical team.
Although Barry is keen to avoid surgery, it could clear up the problem within days. A decision is expected "sooner rather than later". Barry, 28, has suffered an alarming dip in form, which has been put down to a combination of fatigue and the injury. It is feared he could be caught out by delaying surgery in order to help Mark Hughes' side gatecrash the top four. City have plenty of cover in midfield. Nigel De Jong, Vincent Kompany and Stephen Ireland can all step in.
Great Phil McNulty BLOG
Man City come out of the darkness
Manchester City's latest ploy to turn up the sense of anticipation at Eastlands - apart from spending hundreds of millions of pounds of course - is to plunge the stadium into darkness seconds before kick-off.
As the house lights are dimmed, creating an atmosphere akin to the start of a rock concert, a giant "Blue Moon" is beamed on to the Colin Bell Stand and City's old anthem is belted out on cue. Mighty effective it is too - and symbolic, because when City follow up this drama with a victory as significant as this one against Chelsea, there is a genuine sense of a club coming out of darkness into light. Mark Hughes singled this out as a day when City could lay down "another marker about our intentions". And so it proved after a game the purist may have sniffed at, but your average man and woman in the stands would have loved.
Some called it "The Clash Of The Cash" - a collision between chequebooks from as far afield as Abu Dhabi and Russia. In the end it came down to good old-fashioned guts and Manchester City deservedly won the day. In some respects Chelsea produced the template City and Hughes are trying to copy as they play catch-up on the Premier League's elite, helped by unlimited cash resources and naked ambition. Roman Abramovich attempted to bridge the gap between Chelsea and those in front by wielding his mighty financial firepower, then appointed Jose Mourinho to apply the finishing touches with his guile and coaching expertise to bring home the title. Hughes is using even bigger resources to fast-track City and two wins in the last four days, against Arsenal in the Carling Cup quarter-final and against Premier League pace-setters Chelsea, will have cemented his status as the man to lead the Eastlands "project", as it has become known. And if City's aim is to ruffle the feathers of those they intend to challenge, then this objective has been achieved spectacularly in their last two games in front of a passionate Eastlands gallery that is starting to believe.
Hughes' technical area etiquette, or lack of it, sufficiently upset Arsene Wenger for the Arsenal boss to decline the traditional handshake at the final whistle. And on Saturday Chelsea felt the gusts of a wind of change inside Eastlands when they were bundled out of their smooth stride on a wonderfully tumultuous and madcap evening. Carlo Ancelotti graciously accepted Hughes' hand at the final whistle. Having observed closely, it is fair to say City's technical area is not for the faint-hearted - but both managers kept their distance and met with dignity at the end. Of course, for all the talk about handshakes, the place where all accounts are settled is on the pitch and this is where City delivered.
I was highly critical of City's tame approach in their recent draw at Liverpool - and rightly so because they reacted to the sight of a wounded and below-strength opponent by cowering behind the door for an hour until they were forced to show attacking intent. It was dismal and dour stuff. I left Anfield convinced how City fared this season would depend on how willing Hughes was to take the shackles off his team. Here, their hand forced by Chelsea taking an early lead courtesy of Emmanuel Adebayor's own goal, City showed the courage and conviction they lacked at Liverpool and fortune favoured the brave. It was a lesson they must learn when they have such striking talent at their disposal.If City can take the self-belief they showed here (flying in the face of conventional wisdom that says once Chelsea take the lead the credits can start rolling) and produce it away from Eastlands then they can seriously consider a place in the top four.
If Hughes takes the cautious approach on his travels when City have proved what rewards real attacking intent can deliver, then a huge opportunity will be squandered. There is a top four place there for someone - and City can be in that mix if they are brave enough away from home. And if City cannot take increased self-belief away from a wonderful Saturday night at Eastlands, then they never will. Hughes' men showed great resilience to gather themselves after an opening ten minutes in which Didier Drogba should have scored, Adebayor did score in his own net and Chelsea gave every impression of being ready to take City to the cleaners.
And yet City found reserves of character to not only fight their way back into the game and equalise through Adebayor, but win the game with Carlos Tevez's free-kick early in the second half. This being City, it was never going to be easy and Eastlands was knee deep in chewed fingernails at the end of five minutes of stoppage time, coming after Shay Given had saved Frank Lampard's late penalty. It was the sort of win City's Abu Dhabi paymasters will have wanted from Hughes when they backed him with their fortunes - a victory they could parade as a sign of a growing Premier League power. And they were helped by a Chelsea side that lost its way after an imperious opening, hustled and hassled in midfield and wasteful in attack, with even Drogba missing an easy late chance. Ancelotti was calm itself in the aftermath, a sharp contrast to the agitation of Wenger, despite some criticism of referee Howard Webb. He pointed to facts: "We are top. We have two points more than anyone else. We don't have reason to be worried."
But it is a sign of the extra layer of unpredictabilty in the Premier League this season that Chelsea can find themselves hailed as impregnables one week after swatting Arsenal aside, and then be only two points ahead of Manchester United the next after defeat at their neighbours City. And isn't the Premier League all the better for that? There is an added dimension to the title race this season - the leading contenders may just suffer more defeats, and for the uncommitted this adds new twists to what has become a familiar storyline.
If Ancelotti has a worry, it may be that Chelsea could have become complacent after their early supremacy - and there is no escaping the brutal truth that Petr Cech is not the goalkeeper he was. Cech is usually brilliantly protected by John Terry and company, but here he was on the receiving end of an aerial barrage from set pieces and was unconvincing and exposed. Even Tevez's decisive free-kick flew ominously close to the once peerless keeper without Cech getting a decisive touch. But even below their best, Chelsea showed they could still turn the screw as the tension mounted, and Ancelotti has good reason to raise that left eyebrow in his usual sanguine manner and shrug off this unexpected reverse. He still has an outstanding team at his disposal and Chelsea have demonstrated they have the knack of recovering from defeats. For City's fans this was a landmark day. They have now taken a second scalp of the big four at Eastlands (we will count the beating of Arsenal in the league as evidence as opposed to that acrimonious Carling Cup win) and only lost to Manchester United in late, and highly-contentious circumstances.
This was impressive stuff from Hughes' side and he believes it will establish the foundations for a serious push this season: "We have frustrated our fans and ourselves, but I sense after the two performances we have had and the two back-to-back wins, this will be huge for us."We know what it takes to win against the bigger teams. Once we get the hang of how to beat the lesser teams we will be OK. We are really on a journey. We are not where we need to be yet but we are getting there quickly."City have shown they possess courage and character at Eastlands. They have yet to prove it away from those home comforts - if they can do that then there really will be a shining light after the darkness they have had to endure.
Paul Hart being called in to work with the youth team.Meanwhile the defeat of City's youngsters in the FA Youth Cup at Preston last weekend has led to talk of former Portsmouth manager. Hart is close to technical development manager Brian Kidd and is being lined up for a role at Eastlands. Youth team coach Scott Sellars has been blamed for the club's cup exit, although he is on a steep learning curve at City. Hart has yet to be offered a job by City, but he recently turned down Pompey's offer to make him director of football. Hart earned his reputation in the game working with kids and his was the name on everyone's lips at City's training ground last week.
CHELSEA BLOG
You get some results, like the mid-week game against Blackburn where you can just about live with defeat because you know the players have given it their all – and then there’s games like yesterday that are just too much to stomach.
Not the defeat itself because whilst losing never comes easy, as long as you can still hold your head up and say we gave it our best shot, then it’s at least more acceptable. No, I’m on about the way we lost. Not the poor refereeing decisions because at least Webb (as bad as he was) showed up, which is more than can be said for us.
Seriously, we can moan as much as we like but whilst Richards without a doubt handled in the area and got away with it, Adebayor’s own goal might never have happened if the officials had seen the ball come off Cole and not given the corner. Maybe if Citeh had responded to that by concentrating more on the ref than the rest of the game, Adebayor wouldn’t have had the opportunity to make it a goal per side but to be fair to them, they just got on with it and deservedly went in all square at the break.
Don’t get me wrong, I can’t stand Citeh and I was as gutted as the next man to see Carlos Tevez put his free-kick past the wall and Petr Cech but if Carvalho hadn’t needlessly had a second kick-out at the Argie midget’s back then we wouldn’t have been in that position in the first place.
Then came some more iffy reffing, with first Lescott wrestling John Terry to the floor in front of goal and getting away with it, then Toure with his hands all over Didier Drogba from the subsequent corner and still nothing given. In fact, it seemed the more they got away with, the more tactile they thought they’d be – and why not? – they were getting away with it all day anyway. But then, we were allowing them to get away with it as much as the officials were, we could and should have put a much better fight but Lampard’s missed (yes missed) penalty just about summed our performance.
Overall then, it’s fair to sat the mid-week exit has obviously pissed them right off, but instead of the ‘wounded animal’ you’d have expected to come out fighting after we at least battled our arses off mid-week, we turned up whingeing and whining like toothless little bitches. Ok, so Webb’s a cock of the highest order but bad decisions happen week-in-week-out in the Premier League and a side is either big enough to take it on the chin and get their heads together, or they’ll act like petulant, arrogant fuckers, and lose in the manner we did.
Both Ashley Cole and particularly Didier Drogba showed shades of their former selves most of us would rather not be reminded of - mouthing and bitching at every opportunity, Cole’s back turned to the ref, Drogba standing over an injured Bridge moaning about a nothing brush of the shoulder he’d somehow been ‘injured’ by earlier. Just embarrassing to watch really.
Fair enough, Citeh got away with fouls time and again whilst we were getting booked for some nothing challenges (oh and Carvalho’s a total dick for that needless kick on the Argie midget) but if we’re going to challenge for the title rather than fall apart like we did at exactly the same stage as last season, then our players need to drop the ‘victim’ attitude and fucking earn it
ROMAN ABRAMOVICH will block any attempt by Manchester City to lure Guus Hiddink to Eastlands.
Chelsea's billionaire owner has made it clear he will not tolerate the former Blues boss joining a Premier League rival - and certainly not City. With the long-term future of Mark Hughes at Eastlands still in serious doubt, Hiddink and Jose Mourinho top the list of potential replacements. But Abramovich will stand in the way of Hiddink even if he wanted the job. And while Hiddink looks certain to leave his post with Russia, after they failed to reach the World Cup finals, his loyalty to Abramovich is total. His £5million-a-year salary is under-written by Abramovich and the pair are very close after Hiddink's successful spell at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea insiders believe Hiddink will eventually take on a technical advisory role with the Blues.
But it will be done in a way that will not interfere with team manager Carlo Ancelotti but may affect the position of current sporting director Frank Arnesen. A Dutch source close to Hiddink revealed: "Manchester City might want Guus if they sack Mark Hughes but there is no way Abramovich would allow him to be manager at City. "When Peter Kenyon left Chelsea he was forbidden to take up a post at Manchester City. That was part of the settlement. "The only job Guus is likely to take now is behind the scenes at either a club in Holland or at Chelsea."
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TRANSFER BOLLOX
Chelsea could make a shock move for Inter Milan star and former Arsenal midfielder Patrick Vieira in January.News of the World
West Ham striker Carlton Cole is Arsenal's number one January target.Sunday Mirror
Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas is determined to leave the Emirates Stadium in the summer, but could move to either Real Madrid or Barcelona for £45m in January. Sunday Mirror
David Moyes wants to lure former Manchester United striker Diego Forlan, currently playing for Atletico Madrid, to Everton.Daily Star
But Moyes will get no joy when he tries to tempt defender Steven Taylor away from Newcastle.News of the World
Chelsea are keen to sign Sevilla striker Luis Fabiano in January, but may have to wait until the summer, when the 29-year-old Brazilian will be available for £24m.News of the World
Both Chelsea and Sunderland are on the trail of Middlesbrough winger Adam Johnson, but the 22-year-old looks set to stay at the Riverside Stadium with a new contract worth £1.5m a year. News of the World
Barcelona will come in with a £30m bid for Liverpool's Javier Mascherano in January.News of the World
Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez is therefore understandably eager to tie Mascherano to a new long-term contract, and the club have priced Barca out of a move for the Argentine captain. Sunday Mirror
Manchester United are tracking 6ft 4in Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko, who may be available for £15m - but he wants to move to AC Milan.News of the World
Alternatively, Dzeko is at the centre of a three-way battle between United, Arsenal and Manchester City, and is available for just £10m.Sunday Mirror
But Bayern Munich believe United face a financial crisis and have no money to spend, having offered them Franck Ribery for £60m in the summer and heard nothing back.Mail on Sunday
Tottenham will come in for Sunderland defender Anton Ferdinand in January or, failing that, will pursue Manchester City's Micah Richards. (Sunday Express)
New Portsmouth boss Avram Grant's first moves will be for Chelsea pair Daniel Sturridge and Juliano Belletti on loan.News of the World
OTHER BOLLOX
Former Portugal star Luis Figo says England are "not among the favourites" to win the World Cup in 2010. Mail on Sunday
Portsmouth's cash crisis has reached the point where the club left Aruna Dindane on the bench against Aston Villa on Tuesday because they did not have the cash to meet the £4m permanent transfer deal one more appearance would have triggered with French club Lens.
However, Pompey renegotiated the deal in time for Dindane to appear against Burnley on Saturday.Sunday Mirror
The Football Association's allocation of just 4,000 tickets for England's opening World Cup game against the US will create a scramble on the black market.Sunday Mirror
Mike Ashley is once again preparing an attempt to sell Newcastle United, with fresh interest from America in taking over the club.: News of the World
Phil Brown has been told his job as Hull boss is safe - until Christmas, at least. Sunday Mirror
Aston Villa could earn a £30m sponsorship windfall if they reach the final of the Carling Cup.Sunday Mirror
Everton hope to raise £7m from the sale of their old training ground, having had plans for a new stadium at Kirkby turned down.News of the World
MORE BOLLOX
Manchester United paid magicians more than £50,000 over a two-year period, and gave a similar sum to a firm which supplies clowns. News of the World
Cristiano Ronaldo had an incident-packed Saturday as he missed a penalty, scored, then was sent off as Real Madrid beat Almeria 4-2.Mail on Sunday
South Africa coach Carlos Alberto Parreira believes England will be a force at the World Cup because Fabio Capello has ended the WAG culture within the squad. "When you go to war, you don't take the wife," said Parreira.
Independent on Sunday
Speaking of WAG culture ...
WAG OF THE DAY
http://www.thespoiler.co.uk/index.php/2 ... ia-rickter
