Big-spending Manchester City’s Italian supremo Roberto Mancini last week complained that his players were feeling the strain of an increasingly packed fixture list, as his side advanced to the later stages of both the FA Cup and Europa League.

City overcame Greek side Aris Salonika last week to set up a Europa League tie against Ukrainians Dynamo Kiev in the last 16 of the competition. And they beat a weakened Aston Villa side this week in the FA Cup fifth round to set up a quarter-final tie at home to Championship outfit Reading.

But sandwiched inbetween those victories was City’s 1-1 home draw with Fulham in the EPL which put a severe dent in City’s already-fading hopes of capturing the club’s first English league title since 1968.

 

And City’s injury list has grown to seven, leaving Mancini to shuffle his playing resources after the squad was trimmed in the January transfer window. Even before the Villa victory, Mancini said: “Every two or three days we play and it is impossible. In my life I have never seen this. We arrive in March and we could be playing every two days.

“It is not just us who have difficult fixture lists, of course, but it’s impossible. Something must be changed. We are not machines, we are humans. If we draw against Aston Villa then we have a really big problem.”

Fortunately, City won the FA Cup tie 3-0 at a canter, thanks to goals from Yaya Toure, Mario Balotelli and David Silva. City beat Aris by the same scoreline, with two early goals from Edin Dzeko and a third strike from Yaya Toure.

Mancini warned of the threat Dynamo posed, saying: “They have a big team and a lot of experience. They have always played in the Champions League and we know this will be a very difficult game.”

City’s Ireland international goalkeeper Shay Given has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a recurrence of the shoulder injury which kept him out of the closing stages of last season.

Mancini said: “I think he needs three months to recover and I think he needs an operation. I am disappointed for him because we have lost a good goalkeeper. However, he added that he had no plans at present to draft in another net-minder as cover.

City host bottom-of-the-table Wigan Athletic in the EPL this coming Saturday evening.