City’s crisis at the back

MANCHESTER City could have just three fit defenders for Saturday’s Premier League crunch with Chelsea.

After last night’s 2–1 Carling Cup defeat at West Brom, Roberto Mancini revealed he is desperately short of defensive options.

Unless Micah Richards recovers from a hamstring injury which kept him out at The Hawthorns, Mancini will have only Pablo Zabaleta, Vincent Kompany and Kolo Toure available to face the only side left with a 100-per-cent record.

The obvious inference is that should Richards miss out, Zabaleta will play on the right side and City would look for an alternative on the left flank.

That could either involve Adam Johnson being pressed into emergency service, or more likely a midfielder such as James Milner or Gareth Barry.

It is to be hoped owner Sheikh Mansour understands the dilemma. After spending £1billion on City in just over two years, he was presumably hoping for an early end to the club’s lengthy trophy drought.