Sagna hails ‘world-class’ Lamps

Leicester 0 Manchester City 1

It was his 175th Premier League goal and simplicity itself and handed Manchester City a crucial, and seventh consecutive victory, from a game in which they did not play well.

No wonder Manuel Pellegrini is so desperate to extend the former Chelsea midfielder’s loan from New York City further after he went level fourth on the all-time Premier League goalscorers list with Thierry Henry.

Bacary Sagna has faced Lampard while playing for Arsenal and Manchester City and is delighted he now has him on his team.

The 36-year-old has netted six goals in just 13 appearances for the champions and Sagna feels he deserves to be described as one of the all-time greats of English football.

“He is a great guy and he has fitted in perfectly,” said the defender. “He showed here that he can score important goals and he is a great player.

“It’s difficult to defend against him. He is a quick moving player. You have to keep in shape. You have to keep alive. You have to focus even more. To play against these types of players is so difficult. All of them are top, world-class players.

“He was always very good. He has shown many times that he is a great player. As long as we have him on board, it’s always good.

“His goal record doesn’t surprise me because he is a great professional. He keeps working really hard in training. He always tries his best and he is always ready to come in, even if it’s for ten minutes. He is a great professional. He is one of the best English players I have ever seen.”

It was not all positive for Pellegrini though. He has more injury problems, especially up front, after Edin Dzeko pulled out after the warm-up with a calf injury, while captain Vincent Kompany broke down again with a hamstring injury during the game.

Pellegrini has hinted that he may have to turn to James Milner as an emergency striker with Sergio Aguero and Stevan Jovetic also on the sidelines.

“We’ll see [who can play there],” he said. “We’ll work this week, we have players that can play better in that position, can be David Silva, can be Milner, we’ll see. We must try all our options and decide.

“James is a very useful player for the squad. Maybe at some moments of the season he wants to play more games, but I think he’s played in every position, that’s why he’s very important for the squad, that’s why he’s here, that’s why we renew his contract with our team because outside the pitch and inside the pitch he’s a very important player for the squad.”

Leicester can consider themselves most unfortunate. They did not look like a side rock bottom of the Premier League and one that had failed to win in 11 games. However it is clear they need something special quickly with five points separating them from safety.

“I think if anyone watched that game it was clear for all to see that we matched them in every department,” said captain Wes Morgan.

“There’s been a bit of negative publicity, but we were out there giving it our all. We could sense the fans willing us to win the game and we tried our best.

“We just need a break. It was disappointing. The first half we were the better team so we will take the positives from that.”

Certainly manager Nigel Pearson is under no illusions as to the size of his task to keep Leicester in the top flight.

“Teams don’t easily get out of this,” he said. “It requires the skill in terms of being able to perform, you need the mental capacity to deal with being at the bottom of the league and dealing with negativity from other areas.

“But they are a very positive group and our mentality has to be one of belief in ourselves and each other. If we put in performances like this, things will turn around.”

LEICESTER (4-5-1): Hamer 7; Simpson 6, Wasilewski 6, Morgan 6, Konchesky 6; Mahrez 6, Cambiasso 7, Drinkwater 6 (Knockaert 79, 7), King 5, Schlupp 6 (Ulloa 64, 6); Vardy 6 (Powell 73, 5.

MAN CITY (4-5-1): Hart 6; Sagna 6, Kompany 7 (Demichelis 77, 5), Mangala 6, Clichy 6; Silva 7, Fernando 6, Toure 7, Lampard 7 (Milner 60, 6), Nasri 7; Pozo 5 (Navas 74, 6).

Referee: Jonathan Moss.