With Sergio Agüero, Edin Dzeko and Stevan Jovetic all out with injury, Manchester City faces a crisis at striker.

City was forced to play 18-year-old José Ángel Pozo by himself up front.

“We will have to find another way to play,” said Manuel Pellegrini, going on to mention David Silva, Samir Nasri and James Milner as possible stop-gap solutions.

“It’s not easy in January to make a good transfer. I think maybe this year all of you keep [saying] we have the best squad in the Premier League. I’m not very happy about that. You must remember we have important restrictions about the amount of players we have and also, of the big teams, I think we’ve spent the least money, but we continue being the favorite, we continue being the big-spending team.”

The reference to the conditional £49 million fine and transfer restrictions imposed on City under Uefa’s financial fair play regime in May was pointed but not altogether relevant, the restrictions applying to their European squad only.