Rooney concerned as Vardy eyes record against United – No excuses for depleted City: Toure

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LONDON, Nov 27, (Agencies): Wayne Rooney says misfiring Manchester United should follow the example of record-chasing Jamie Vardy in their summit meeting with surprise Premier League leaders Leicester on Saturday.

Leicester striker Vardy will make history at the King Power Stadium if he scores for a Premier League record 11th successive match and his record bid couldn’t come at a more uncomfortable time for the struggling Rooney and United’s other out-of-form forwards.

With 13 league goals this season, Vardy has scored more than all of United’s strikers combined and fittingly it is former Old Trafford great Ruud van Nistelrooy whose record he will break if he finds the net this weekend.

Rooney and his fellow United forwards have only nine league goals to their credit and they drew a blank again in midweek with a 0-0 draw against PSV Eindhoven that left them in danger of missing out of the Champions League knockout stages.

United captain Rooney is well aware of the threat posed by Vardy after linking up with the prolific 28-year-old on England duty and he wants his team-mates to start showing the kind of composure and predatory instincts displayed by the Leicester star.

“No, we’re not,” Rooney said when asked if his team were ruthless enough. “I think we need to score more goals as a team.

“I feel we showed a lack of composure which put ourselves under pressure a lot of times.

“It’s a learning curve for us, but we can’t go on saying it’s a learning curve. We have to start turning these games into victories.”

If Vardy does break van Nistelrooy’s record it will continue a remarkable rise for a player who was in non-league football with Fleetwood only a few years ago and last season scored just five goals for Leicester.

After firing Leicester in contention for a European berth less than a year after they were battling relegation, Vardy is such a hot property that Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri this week felt compelled to plead with the forward to ignore offers from bigger clubs in the January transfer window.

“At the moment we’re very happy and also Jamie is happy with us and he can continue to show his strength with us,” Ranieri said.

“Jamie is now a champion. He has to take confidence in this. He’s a strong character because he comes from non-league.”

A win for United, who have failed to score in four of their last seven matches, would take them to the top of the table, but a draw would open the door for Manchester City to regain first place.

From a position of strength at the top a week ago, City suddenly face a test of their staying power against Southampton.

City’s shock 4-1 defeat at home to Liverpool last Saturday saw them surrender the lead in the title race, with manager Manuel Pellegrini admitting the performance was one of the worst of his reign.

Captain Vincent Kompany has been badly missed and faces another fortnight out with a calf problem, while Samir Nasri is also sidelined and goalkeeper Joe Hart was injured in the midweek Champions League loss at Juventus.

But Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Toure is not looking for excuses.

“We have a fantastic squad. We had quite a lot of injuries from important players but we have to live with that,” Toure said.

“We have to forget this game (at Juventus) and try to bounce back in the league.”

Gary Cahill hopes Chelsea can take the momentum from two consecutive wins into Sunday’s London derby at Tottenham.

The spluttering Premier League champions followed up last Saturday’s 1-0 win over Norwich with a 4-0 Champions League victory at Maccabi Tel Aviv.

But a truer test of their resurgence will come at White Hart Lane, where Chelsea lost 5-3 on New Year’s Day.

“It’s important we keep this momentum going,” Cahill told Chelsea TV. “We have to keep building and try to gather these wins to turn this around.”

Chelsea’s cause will be helped by having an extra two days rest while Tottenham were making the long trip to Azerbaijan for Thursday’s Europa League win over Qarabag.

Manchester City playmaker David Silva is back in the squad for Saturday’s Premier League match against Southampton, but goalkeeper Joe Hart will be absent with a minor muscle injury, manager Manuel Pellegrini said

Hart, expected to be out for 10 days, sustained the injury in Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to Juventus in the Champions League.

The return of Silva, who last featured for the club in the 6-1 drubbing of Newcastle United on Oct 3, will come as welcome news to City who have scored just three times in their last four league matches.

“David Silva is back on the squad list. It’s important to have David back — he is a very important player, the same as Kun (Sergio Aguero). It’s very difficult to replace him,” Pellegrini told reporters on Friday.

“David gives us a different way of playing — we have good possession against teams with eight or nine players of theirs behind the ball and David is the player with the most accurate passes in the final third.

“Joe Hart has a muscle injury — you never know as it depends how he improves but I think he will be out for ten days.

“Fortunately it’s not a very serious injury for Joe. I never complain about injuries as I trust a lot in Willy Caballero — I’m sure he will have a good performance,” he added.

City, in third place, will look to get back to winning ways in the league after losing 4-1 at home to Liverpool last weekend.

Pellegrini said he expects a difficult encounter against the Saints, who will be without leading goalscorer Graziano Pelle after he picked up his fifth booking of the season in last weekend’s loss to Stoke City.

“It wasn’t a good week for us — we lost two games. Against Liverpool it was an ugly defeat and then against Juventus we improved a little bit but it was not the result we wanted,” he said.

“Southampton are having a good season, they’re unbeaten away and they have good players. We’ll need to play well to win.

“They are missing Pelle but (Shane) Long is a very good striker — they have one suspended player but they will be just as difficult.”

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