Manchester City’s Argentinian striker Sergio Aguero runs with the ball during the Group F football match between Manchester City and Shakhtar Donetsk at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, north west England, on September 26, 2017. OLI SCARFF / AFP
Manchester City’s defensive resilience and offensive brilliance so far this season face arguably their sternest tests on Saturday against champions Chelsea, with the Premier League leaders without full-back Benjamin Mendy and star striker Sergio Aguero.
France full-back Mendy looks set to miss most, if not all, of the rest of the season after undergoing an operation on a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.
City medical staff say Aguero will be absent for between two to four weeks with a broken rib suffered when a taxi the Argentinian star was travelling in — after attending a concert on his day off — crashed in Amsterdam on Thursday.
City will feel both their absences keenly.
Mendy has been in fine form for City since his £50 million ($67 million, 57 million euros) pre-season move from Monaco, whilst Aguero has scored six Premier League goals this term.
“It’s a broken rib. Hurts, but I’m fine, fully focused on recovery,” tweeted Aguero after being seen by City medical staff on Friday.
Both City and Chelsea, three points behind both Pep Guardiola’s men and second-placed Manchester United, go into Saturday’s game on the back of midweek Champions League victories over Shakhtar Donetsk and Atletico Madrid respectively.
– ‘Penalised’ –
Chelsea manager Antonio Conte is unhappy that, while City played at home on Tuesday, his side have a short turnaround after arriving back in London in the early hours of Thursday morning following their success in the Spanish capital.
“I think we are a bit penalised,” said Conte. “Man City is a really strong team. They are scoring a lot of goals (21 in six Premier League games alone), they are in a good moment of form and we have to prepare well (for) this game because it is very important.
“There is the international break (after this weekend),” the Italian added. “My surprise is for this because there is the time (to play the game later).”
United will be huge favourites to beat basement club Crystal Palace at Old Trafford on Saturday.
However Jose Mourinho, like Conte, is not happy with the quick turnaround after United returned from Russia in the early hours of Thursday having beaten CSKA Moscow in the Champions League.
“We have to play against everybody home and away and when I look at the fixtures I only look to the period of time we have to recover from match to match,” said Mourinho.
“That’s the only thing that concerns me and makes me think. The opposition is not the problem.”
Palace have lost all six of their league matches so far this season and have still to score their first top-flight goal of a campaign where they have already sacked Frank de Boer and brought in former England boss Roy Hodgson — a boyhood Palace fan — in a bid to arrest their slump.
Tottenham Hotspur, fresh from seeing England striker Harry Kane score a hat-trick in a 3-0 Champions League win away to APOEL Nicosia, are at surprise high-flyers Huddersfield Town, while Watford will look to consolidate their position in the top half at West Bromwich Albion.
Elsewhere West Ham United, with just Bournemouth and Palace below them in the table, will hope to ease the pressure on manager Slaven Bilic when they welcome Swansea City to the London Stadium.
The pick of Sunday’s three Premier League matches sees Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez up against former club Liverpool at St James’ Park in a fixture long known for producing high-scoring encounters.
N igerians must move on together as a breakup is not an option, former Senate President, David Mark, said on Friday. “Those who are agitating for otherwise are missing the point. Nigeria has crossed many crucibles. We cannot reverse ourselves,” Mr. Mark told Kaduna State Acting Governor, Alhaji Aminu Shagali, in Kaduna. He was at the head of a delegation of the Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA) 3rd Regular Course Alumni Association on a courtesy visit to the acting governor. “The only option is to move on in a manner that is progressive, peaceful and united,” he was further quoted as saying by his media aide, Paul Mumeh. “We may have our disagreements. But a breakup is not an option. We can resolve our differences through meaningful dialogue and genuine conversation." “There is no use heating up the polity,” the ex-Senate president added. He noted that no matter the imperfections, the nation is greater and better as an indivisible country.
The Emir of Katsina, Abdulmumini Usman, has declared support for the Peace Corps bill passed by the National Assembly. The bill, which seeks to turn the Peace Corps, a non-government organisation, into a government paramilitary agency, has elicited mixed reactions from Nigerians. Proponents see it as an avenue to create jobs for thousands of youth while critics describe as a duplication of functions already being performed by existing agencies and creation of another bureaucracy at a time the country is finding it difficult to pay workers' salaries. The bill was opposed by existing military and security institutions in Nigeria and the Peace Corps leader Dickson Akoh is currently being prosecuted for alleged fraud. Apart from lawmakers, the bill is also supported by some prominent Nigerians including the Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung, who also asked Mr. Buhari to sign to it. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the Katsina emir made a similar call on the president on Thursda
Former Niger Delta militant leader, Asari Dokubo, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari will never be well again. He said that this is the reason no doctor has been able to diagnose his ailment. Asari said the hands of God is on Buhari just as they were on Pharoah. He also said the name of the disease affecting President Buhari is 'hale and hearty.' According to ex-MEND leader, every government official who goes to London to see President Buhari returns to the media to say that he is hale and hearty. He said they have all failed to disclosed what ailment he is suffering from. He said, "As God first of afflicted Pharaoh with the deafness of the ear and deafness of the heart, God also first of all, afflicted Buhari with deafness of the ear. "He was not sick, later they said he has an ear infection like Pharoah. Allah inflicted him with ear problem. "We are talking of ear problem and we heard of another sickness and the name of that sickness is hale and hearty. H
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