London: Manchester City are strong favourites to take another step towards an unprecedented quadruple of trophies in Saturday’s FA Cup semifinal against Brighton at Wembley.
A potential 13 more games lie between Pep Guardiola’s men and a clean sweep of FA Cup, Premier League and Champions League to add to the League Cup they lifted in February.
However, with another seven matches to come before the end of April, Guardiola faces a headache in a familiar problem position.
Oleksandr Zinchenko suffered a hamstring injury in Wednesday’s routine 2-0 win over Cardiff that restored City to the top of the Premier League.
The Ukrainian has deputised ably at leftback, despite being a midfielder by trade prior to Guardiola’s arrival, while $68 million World Cup winner Benjamin Mendy has been sidelined for much of the past two seasons due to knee injuries.
Guardiola’s patience with Mendy has worn thin and was tested again this week when the defender was filmed in a nightclub at 3.30am last Saturday morning, hours before the English champions travelled to Fulham.
Mendy was not in the matchday squad, but was due in training the next day to continue his rehabilitation.
“They are old enough to know what they have to do, I’m not his father,” said Guardiola when asked if he was angered by Mendy’s late night. “I would prefer him to go home earlier but I don’t control the players in that situation.”
Mendy has played just 27 minutes in a League Cup tie at third-tier Burton Albion since November and Guardiola has previously spoken about reinforcing his left-back options for next season, suggesting the Frenchman’s future at the club is far from assured.
Yet, with Fabian Delph also out injured, he could now be thrown back into the action for the most crucial stretch of City’s season with Guardiola admitting ‘we don’t have many options’.
If Mendy is to play a big part, he will need minutes at Wembley this weekend to get up to match sharpness with Guardiola unconvinced by right-back Danilo’s ability to switch sides as he did for the final hour against Cardiff.
“He (Zinchenko) is important for us. He knows the way we want to play,” added Guardiola. “Danilo fought a lot in that position, but it is not his natural one. We will find a solution.”
AFP