Pablo Zabaleta insists fatigue will not affect Manchester City

A tense title race is entering the closing stages and third-placed City kept the pressure on Chelsea and Liverpool with an impressive 4-1 win over Southampton on Saturday.

Manuel Pellegrini's men have been forced to cope with a hectic fixture schedule, leading them to Capital One Cup success, together with progress to the latter stages of the Champions League and FA Cup.

Yaya Toure, Edin Dzeko, Samir Nasri and Stevan Jovetic all scored as City overcame a spirited Saints side and Zabaleta admits his team cannot afford any leg weary displays in the closing games.

"The most important thing was to win - we must keep winning all games. It is going to be very tough until the end of the season," said the defender.

"At the end of the season, sometimes, teams can look a little tired but I think we must keep winning games."

Pablo Zabaleta

"At the end of the season, sometimes, teams can look a little tired but I think we must keep winning games.

"Every single game now is going to be like a final, (but) we have belief.

"I think we have a great team to make success this season but it is not going to be very easy.

"We need to keep working hard and keep playing like (we did) in the second half. I think playing in that way we will have more chances."

Rickie Lambert equalised from the penalty spot for Southampton, who caused City plenty of problems in the first-half at the Etihad.

Zabaleta was impressed with Mauricio Pochettino's men, suggesting that Saints can threaten the top teams next season.

Zabaleta said: "I think they are probably one of the best teams in the league, for sure.

"I think we must give them a lot of credit because they are having a great season, they played really well.

"We didn't play our best in the first half but then we came back stronger.

"We had the control of the ball in the second half. We scored four goals and that is great for us."

World Cup: Gareth Barry admits England call is unlikely despite Everton form

Gareth Barry has admitted that he has 'virtually written off' his chances of making the England squad for this summer's World Cup.

The midfielder has won 53 international caps but has not played for his country since a pre-Euro 2012 friendly against Norway and is not anticipating a surprise call-up for Brazil.

Barry's strong performances for Everton this season, having joined the club on loan from Manchester City, had put him in the frame for selection.

However, he concedes that missing out on a place in Roy Hodgson's inflated squad for the recent Denmark friendly almost certainly signalled the end of his hopes.

"I've not spoken to the manager for two years and I didn't get a call from him before the Denmark friendly saying 'you weren't far off'. So in my head, I've virtually written it off," Barry said in the Sunday People.

"When I joined Everton, England wasn't even in the back of my mind, but the way the season has gone, there were a growing number of calls for me to be included.

"When I heard there was going to be a 30-man squad for the Denmark game, I thought: 'There's a really good chance I could be involved here'.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't slightly disappointed that I wasn't - but I've been in football long enough to know it doesn't matter how well you have been playing if your face isn't going to fit in a certain squad."

Aguero and Negredo, or Suarez and Sturridge - which is the best strike partnership?

While Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge have forged an almost unstoppable strike partnership in the Premier League this season, Sergio Aguero and Alvaro Negredo have had their partnership hampered by injury.

But there was a significant stretch of the season when Manchester City's star strikers were firing in goals for fun, establishing their club as Premier League title favourites in the first half of the season.

Since Luis Suarez's return from early season suspension, he has formed a prolific partnership with Liverpool's Daniel Sturridge, and the pair are the first and second Premier League top scorers respectively.

But, if both the Suarez and Sturridge partnership and the Aguero and Negredo partnership had managed to play every single game in the 2013/14 season, which would finish up with more goals?

To find out, we took goals scored while both players of each partnership were on the pitch this season, and did some sums to project this over a period of 38 games.

The results are surprisingly close.

First of all, we take a look at each partnership's goals per-game ratio, and there's very little in it. SAS have a ratio of 1.68 goals per-game, while AAN have a ratio of 1.59.

Barry: "At home we can beat the best, and Man City are ..."

Gareth Barry continued his EvertonTV interview this week by discussing the visit of his parent club Manchester City’s visit to Goodison Park in May.

The midfielder is ineligible for the game which could at that stage be crucial to Everton’s hopes of European football.

“I’m not looking forward to that game coming along to be honest, in terms of my position. I just hope at that stage that we are still in with a shout of qualifying for the Champions League”.

“At home we can beat the best, and Man City are certainly that” he continued. “I think it will be clear in my situation. I’m out of contract this summer, I’m playing and working for Everton and I’m all about Everton and so I’ll be hoping, as difficult as it is to say, that Everton pick up the 3 points if that means qualifying for the Champions League.”

Pushed on his future, Barry maintained the stance he and his manager Martinez has taken all season.

“I’ve not really thought about it to be honest. I think the manager has been clear about it from day one, that I just need to focus on my football and make sure I enjoy it. That’s what I need to do. Sometimes for professional footballers it comes into your mind and makes it difficult to concentrate of the pitch, so I’m just hoping to get to the end of the season and hopefully being successful with it.”

“I’m 33 now, it will probably be my final contract, so I’m going to make sure it’s a correct one”.

“I’ve really enjoyed my time at Everton, I certainly won’t be looking back and regretting my decision to come and play here. I really have enjoyed working here at this fantastic football club and if it can be successful, that’s even better.”

Wenger under pressure ahead of Fourth Place Cup Final

It is not quite the same as Manchester City against Tottenham in 2010, which was scheduled right at the end of the season. But Sunday’s Fourth Place Cup Final between Everton and Arsenal is nonetheless an occasion full of significance, full of interest, full of possibility.

It marks the coming together of a manager on the up and a manager whose upward trajectory long ago stalled, between a club stretching beyond its financial means and one serially under-achieving, between a team relying heavily on other clubs’ employees and one capable of buying at the very top. In short, between a club who are way ahead of expectation and one who continue to frustrate with their inability to match potential to silverware.

In many ways it is surprising that it has come to this. Less than a month ago Arsenal hammered Everton 4-1 in the FA Cup quarter final. On that occasion, there was no thought the two might be coming together this weekend on almost equal terms. But Everton have put together a run of five consecutive league victories and are suddenly breathing down the neck of Arsenal, who are experiencing their standard late-season stall.

Four points behind with a game in hand – and that a home encounter with Crystal Palace – win on Sunday and suddenly fourth place, and with it the money-printing exercise that is Champions League qualification, looks a prospect for Everton. There is still a way to go, but two teams from Merseyside in Europe: it would be like the 1980s all over again.

For some, Sunday’s narrative centres on the two managers. In the blue corner is Roberto Martinez, the Premier League’s most innovative, exciting young coach and proof positive that despite all available evidence it is possible to be a nice guy in this business and thrive. Intelligent, positive, invariably patient and polite, by all accounts Martinez is a joy to work for. Players respond to his mix of upbeat enthusiasm and canny tactical acumen. He makes the right decisions and he makes them quickly.

He has taken a team renowned for its stubborn refusal to yield and turned them into a smart, clever, adventurous outfit. He has brought on the young players he inherited – Ross Barkley, Seamus Coleman, John Stones – to a level his predecessor was not convinced they could reach. His ventures into the transfer market – whether permanent or on loan – have been masterful. Indeed, the borrowing of Gareth Barry, Gerard Deulofeu and Romelu Lukaku have turned out to be the coups of the season.

If all this sounds rather familiar – the transformation of a stubborn club into a free-flowing glory bunch, the mix of tactical nous and progressive man management, the ability to seek out value in the market – it is because they used to be traits readily associated with his opposite number on Sunday. But it has been a long time since Arsene Wenger was the next big thing.

A survey of Arsenal fans taken this week suggested that 50 per cent of them believe if neither the FA Cup was won nor Champions League qualification secured then it would be better for all if Wenger quit at the end of the season. While online polls are not the most rigorous of statistical analysis, that speaks of the widespread adherence in the Emirates stands to the idea that it may be time to thank the grand old man for his efforts over the past 18 seasons and move on. The truth is, the frustrations in the continuing failure to convert financial stability into success will only disappear with a trophy.

Those who write off Wenger as an anachronism, however, should be warned: this is a manager whose ability to confound expectation is legend. There was a hint in last Sunday’s comeback against Manchester City that he might yet reverse the decline that has seen his team slip from championship contenders at Christmas to fighting for fourth in the spring.

Given that he has lost Jack Wilshere, Mesut Ozil, Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey to long-term injury since his gilded autumn, mind, even to be in contention might be considered an achievement. Fitness reports suggest, however, that Wenger will be able to recall Ramsey at Goodison, which would be a huge positive for the remaining programme. Especially as, after Everton, Arsenal have a run-in involving West Ham, Hull, Newcastle, West Brom and Norwich. Given that Everton have to face Southampton, Manchester United and Manchester City in their run-in, even defeat at Goodison may not be wholly disastrous for Wenger.

Indeed, for the Arsenal boss the more important date is surely not this coming Sunday but next weekend, when he takes his team to Wembley for an FA Cup semi-final. With all due respect to Wigan – which is football speak for offering no respect at all - faced with the opposition left in the competition, if he doesn’t land the FA Cup Wenger really ought to consider packing it all in. The endless talk of character and potential would sound awfully hollow if he failed to by-pass Uwe Rosler’s livewire operation and then one of either Hull or Sheffield United.

Next Sunday’s fixture is the one he has to get right. After that, he can turn his attention to securing fourth place and maintaining his long-standing tradition of qualifying for the Champions League. If he does both, the growling in the stands will surely abate. And, while even a man as nice as Roberto Martinez might not join in the applause, were he to do so it would be a fitting marker of Wenger’s continuing relevance.

The five reasons why Man City WILL win the title

The title race is going down to the wire with Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City fighting it out. It's so close we can't call it. So, we've asked fan websites of the three teams to convince us why it'll be their team lifting the Premier League trophy next month. Here is Steven Allweis from Man City's View from a Blue who puts forward the five reasons why Manuel Pellegrini will be celebrating league glory in his first season in England.

 

1) Hunger to reclaim the title

After the title in 2012 had been secured in such exhilarating circumstances, last year was feeble. It was as if the players had achieved their ambitions and therefore there was no desire to repeat that success.

This season, however, there is a noticeable focus around the club. There is a steely determination to bounce back and show that May 13 was not a one-off. This squad is hungry for success and as nerves become frayed in the title battle, that attitude and spirit will stand City in good stead.

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Champions: Manchester City celebrate their dramatic Premier League triumph from the 2011/12 season

 

2) The defence

Much of the attention on City is directed towards the quality that courses through the more forward-thinking players in the squad, but just one goal conceded in the past six Premier League matches suggests the defence is stronger than many believe.

Vincent Kompany is the inspirational leader of the side, Martin Demichelis is by no means the amateurish clown often depicted in the media and Pablo Zabaleta is the best right-back in the league.

With Joe Hart having bounced back strongly from his troubles, the defence is now a solid unit who can, if necessary, grind out a battling three points.

3) Sergio Aguero’s return

That the Blues have coped in his absence says much about the quality the players possess, not just in attacking areas, but all over the pitch.

Alvaro Negredo’s form in the second half of the season is in direct contrast to his pulsating performances earlier in the campaign, Edin Dzeko is as wildly inconsistent as ever, Stevan Jovetic has barely featured and yet the team have still been scoring goals and winning.

Aguero’s return will provide a boost at the perfect time. Pace, trickery, workrate, touch, vision and clinical in front of goal. He has it all.

 

 

 

4) David Silva

The best player I’ve seen in a City shirt. He’s a genius, a controlling maestro who dictates play, glides into space, teases opponents and has more than just a sprinkling of invention.

His displays, previously excellent and full of creativity, have been pushed up a notch since moving into a more central role over recent weeks.

It’s a privilege to watch him and if he continues in this enthralling vein, City will win the title.

 

5) Remaining fixtures

A couple of trips to Merseyside, one to face a rampant Liverpool and the other against recent nemesis, Everton, have been widely highlighted as potentially damaging obstacles.

But the players have raised their game this season against the better sides and should City come through those encounters unscathed, the other fixtures - including meetings at home with Sunderland, West Brom, Aston Villa and West Ham – look relatively comfortable. 

Read more of Steven's opinion at View from a Blue and @viewfromablue

source:dailymail

Pochettino ready for City

Mauricio Pochettino is confident Southampton can derail Manchester City's title bid this weekend, even if Sergio Aguero is back from injury.

As the season enters the home stretch, Manuel Pellegrini's side are fighting it out with Liverpool and Chelsea for the Barclays Premier League crown.

City lie third in the standings but have two matches in hand on their rivals, as well as a potentially season-defining trip to leaders Liverpool next weekend.

First, though, they face a home clash with high-flying Southampton, who have yet to lose to City during Pochettino's tenure.

"We always have the belief that we are going to win," the Saints boss said, having previously overseen a victory and draw against Saturday's opponents.

"We have the belief in every single game that we are going to win.

"We know we are going to be facing a very tough side in Manchester City, a side that is definitely a candidate to win in the Premier League and are one of the best teams in England and Europe.

"Despite that we are still going with the belief that we are going to play our game and we are going to get something out of that game.

"We are going there with a clear idea to play our game, to play our style, and also to try to maintain if we can maintain the high standards that we showed against Newcastle.

"We are going with the mentality to play a very good game against a very tough side."

The challenge will be even tougher should top scorer Aguero be available again.

The Argentina international has been sidelined for the last three weeks with a hamstring complaint but is in line for a return against Saints - not that Pochettino is overly concerned.

"I would like to be playing against him," he said of his fellow countryman.

"I think injuries are a very hard process to withstand, it is not easy for any player, and I always want to be facing the best players who are fully fit.

"I hope he is able to play and looking ahead to the World Cup that increases his chances of going to the World Cup."

Even if Aguero does not make it, Pellegrini can still call upon the likes of David Silva.

"He is the type of player that has the quality of an Iniesta, a Xavi, a Silva, the type of special talent that people enjoy,"

Pochettino said.

"We hope he can keep having amazing performances with our team and it leads him to getting into the English national side."

Southampton midfielder Lallana has impressed, though, so much so that his displays this term have seen Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool amongst those to have been mentioned with possible summer moves for the England international.

Luke Shaw and Rickie Lambert are other Saints players attracting interest and keeping such talent will likely play a major role in retaining Pochettino's services, who was again linked with the Tottenham hotseat this week.

The former Argentina international said keeping such players "has to be the goal of the club" this summer, but was coy when asked about his own future.

"The first thing is that I still have one more year on my contract," Pochettino said

"The second thing is that we still have six games until the end of the season and we are trying to focus as much as we can to get the maximum number of points out of those games.

"Third of all as first team manager I am always focused on the team and the game ahead.

"I am also working in a calm manner and I am open to discuss with the board whenever it's convenient and necessary the future but I think there is still time until that happens and I am always open to discuss with the board whenever it's necessary in the future."

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Crystal Palace midfielder: Manchester City and Liverpool won't fancy coming to Selhurst Park

CRYSTAL Palace midfielder Stuart O’Keefe has warned the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool that the Eagles will be no pushovers when the clubs meet in the next four weeks.

Both City and Liverpool could be gunning for the Premier League title while Palace could be fighting to stay up still.

And after Saturday’s victory against Chelsea, O’Keefe believes their opponents won’t “fancy coming down” to Selhurst Park following their performance against the Blues.

“We have still got City, Liverpool and Villa to come here,” he told the Advertiser.

“There is no reason why we can’t pick up points, especially as no one gave us a chance against Chelsea.

“Cardiff is massive and they are the ones you need to win. Anything you get from the big boys is a bonus.

“But I don’t think they’ll fancy coming down here after watching our performance on Saturday.

“I don’t think they’ll think it’s a given anyway.”

City eds coach Patrick Vieira: Eden Hazard and Luis Suarez don't deserve to win PFA Player of the Year award

  City eds coach Patrick Vieira believes that there is only one possible winner of the PFA Player of the Year prize, but insists that it is not Liverpool’s 29 goal-striker Luis Suarez or Chelsea’s Eden Hazard. While the ex- Arsenal star also claimed that the pair do not score enough goals in the big games.

Former Arsenal midfield general, and current Manchester City coach, Vieira  said that Yaya Toure should win the award for consistent performances across the season and for scoring 20 goals from central midfield, arguing that the Manchester City midfield has “absolutely everything.”

“When you are voting for the best player, it shouldn’t just be about the number of goals you have scored or the number of assists you have made,” insisted Vieira.

“It should also be about whether you have done great things against the biggest teams in the biggest games. If you take that into account, then no one in the Premier League comes close to Yaya Toure.

“Yaya’s level of performance is very high in every game – and if you look at him in the biggest games his consistency is absolutely fantastic.”

Vieira continued by suggesting that Toure has a bigger impact in the big games than his rivals, saying that the likes of Luis Suarez and Eden Hazard “don’t even get close” to Toure’s impact on the most important matches.

“People talk about Suarez and Hazard – and let me say that they are two players I really admire – but when it comes to scoring goals, making goals and performing at a high level in the most important matches, they don’t even get close to Yaya.

“Suarez, in particular, is a player I absolutely love to watch. He is one of the best. But I’m not sure he has scored enough goals against the really big teams in the really big games.

“And it’s exactly the same with Hazard.

“We are talking about two terrific players for Liverpool and Chelsea. But Yaya Toure has scored more than 20 goals from central midfield – and as an all-round footballer he has absolutely everything. No-one has come close to him this season.”

Toure has a shot conversion rate of 41.5% this season.

Chelsea star: City our main rivals

Chelsea goalkeeper Peter Cech has said he thinks Manchester City are their main rivals for the Premier League - despite Liverpool's hot form catapulting them top of the division.

The Blues sit second and are just two points off the top but have lost ground after being defeated by strugglers Crystal Palace and Aston Villa recently.

City are four points off Liverpool but have two games in hand, though one of those is a visit to Anfield where the Reds have been sensational.

Brendan Rodgers' side have thrown themselves into the reckoning after an incredible run of eight successive victories, though they are still regarded as outsiders by most.

And Cech still sees City as Chelsea's main challengers. "They keep the core that won the Premier League in 2012 and also have added some new players, so I think they are the team to beat," he told Spanish website Grada360.

Liverpool have since beaten Cardiff, Sunderland and Tottenham in the last week as they continue their unlikely climb toward the Premier League crown.

Arsenal boss expects key man to remain at Emirates Stadium

There are some confused faces amongst punters here in the Football Transfer Tavern as Metro claim that Bacary Sagna is set to stay at Arsenal this summer.

The reason for the confusion is of course the fact that the French defender has made no secret of his wage demands, and we know of at least two top Premier League sides, not to mention a fair few abroad who would be keen on matching these demands.

However, manager Arsene Wenger has claimed that he expects the former Auxerre defender to remain at the club and pen a new deal with the Gunners.

The under fire Frenchman also issued a strong warning to Manchester City, who are known to be chasing Sagna and claimed: “He has an offer, he has not come back to us yet. That [City offer] cannot be right because it’s illegal.

“I’m confident he will stay but we will accept his decision. No matter what his decision will be, we will accept it and go on with it.”

Given the Gunners infamously lost Ashley Cole after a ‘tapping up’ incident that landed Chelsea and Jose Mourinho in a fair bit of trouble, we are not surprised at Wenger’s caution here