Football
Jonathan Smith, Manchester City correspondent 8y

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany ruled out of Arsenal clash

MANCHESTER -- Vincent Kompany, David Silva, Pablo Zabaleta and Aleksandar Kolarov will all be missing for Manchester City's crucial Premier League clash with Arsenal on Sunday.

Manuel Pellegrini's side must take maximum points from their final two fixtures -- at home against the Gunners and away at Swansea City -- to be certain of a top-four finish and a subsequent place in next season's Champions League.

Silva and Zabaleta both missed the midweek Champions League second-leg defeat to Real Madrid with a hamstring and calf injuries respectively.

Kompany, 30, limped off just eight minutes into the 1-0 loss at the Bernabeu and is having medical tests on another muscle strain. The City skipper has suffered more than 30 injuries during his time at the Etihad and Pellegrini said he was unsure whether the Belgium international would be fit for this summer's European Championship.

"For the moment, we need to process a couple of players tomorrow but David Silva, Pablo Zabaleta and Aleksandar Kolarov are all out as well as Vincent," Pellegrini told a news conference. "We don't have the medical examination on Vincent -- he's with the doctor. On Monday we will know. 

"For Vincent it's an issue for the future -- we must talk with the doctor, with the player, with the people who will be in charge of City next year. It's not an answer I can give at the moment, a medical issue.

"Every time he is in the starting line-up it is because he is fully fit to play, you can be sure of that."

An Arsenal win at the Eithad would secure Arsene Wenger's side a place in the Champions League for a 16th consecutive season. The Gunners have beaten City in their last two meetings and Pellegrini believes they have played a more defensive way against his side in their recent meetings.

"Maybe Arsene changes his style of play when they play against us in the last two games -- this season in London and last year here at home," Pellegrini added. "They let us have possession while they were defending.

"I expect us to recover our attacking potential because that was the problem we had against Real Madrid, which I didn't expect.

"I hope that on Sunday we can continue being a scoring team and the team that scores the most goals for the third season in a row."

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