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 left-back, despite being a midfielder by trade prior to Guardiola's arrival, while £52 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 3.30 am last Saturday morning, hours before the team went to Fulham. Mendy was not in the matchday squad, but was due in training the next day to continue his rehab.
“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.
Mendy has played just 27 minutes in a League Cup tie at third-tier Burton Albion since November and Guard-iola has previously spoken about reinforcing his left-back options for next season, suggesting the Frenchman’s future at the club is far from assured.
