Guardiola may lack Kompany for visit to Crystal Palace

Vincent Kompany

LONDON- Pep Guardiola is hopeful Vincent Kompany’s latest injury setback is not too serious as he looks to continue Manchester City’s extraordinary winning run at Crystal Palace today.

Club captain Kompany suffered his third injury of the season when he limped off with a calf problem just 11 minutes into Wednesday’s 1-0 victory at Newcastle United, and is a doubt for the trip to Selhurst Park.

His absence would leave Guardiola short of central defensive options once more, although John Stones is close to recovering from the hamstring problem sustained during the 2-0 win at Leicester City on November 18.

“He’s (Stones) not as bad as we thought,” Guardiola said.
“We think he will be ready for the next fixtures but we’ll know exactly tomorrow (Saturday). It’s not a big issue and he can be soon ready to help us.”

Central defensive injury concerns aside, though, life could hardly be much better for Guardiola at present.

His team are 15 points clear at the top of the Premier League - before yesterday’s games - having won their past 18 matches in the competition.

Victory at Selhurst Park would set a new Premier League record of 12 consecutive away victories, passing the mark of 11 set by Chelsea in 2008. It would also equal Guardiola’s personal record of 19 straight league wins, which he set with Bayern Munich between October 2013 and March 2014.

City also look well on course to beat Chelsea’s record of 95 points in a Premier League season.