Man City’s Zabaleta tells mates to keep cool

Returning Manchester City defender Pablo Zabaleta has urged the champions to hold their nerve as they continue their quest for back-to-back Premier League titles away to West Ham on Saturday.

City are one point behind leaders Chelsea and level with local rivals Manchester United, heading into this weekend's games and while Zabaleta reckons it will be a hotly-contested battle for the league title, he believes City can emerge triumphant once again.

"It was important to win at the weekend against Swansea and to get three points," he said. "We are only in November, I think it is too early to say who is going to win the league or to say what teams will fight for the title.

"Chelsea are doing well, so are Manchester United as well as Tottenham (four points behind City in fourth place) and ourselves, but there is a long way to go yet and everything is very tight at the top of the table.

"That is why we have to work very hard. There is a good feeling among the team about defending the title."

City's 1-0 win over Swansea last weekend came at a cost, with Micah Richards suffering a knee injury that is set to sideline the England defender for up to four months.

But the good news for City manager Roberto is that Argentina's Zabaleta, like Richards a right-back, is poised to return following a hamstring injury that has kept him out of action since the start of October.

And with Maicon still out and Aleksandar Kolarov suffering a knock against Swansea which leaves him a doubt for West Ham, Zabaleta's return will be a particularly welcome sight for Italian boss Mancini.

"I feel good, I've been training with the team and I think I should be fine to play on Saturday," Zabaleta said. "We've had three full-backs injured over the past few months, so it is great to be back with the team."

Mancini may also be able to welcome back midfielder Javi Garcia against the Hammers West as the Spaniard has recovered from a thigh strain that has kept him out of action for a month.

Meanwhile Hammers manager Sam Allardyce, whose newly promoted side are in a solid mid-table position, is looking for a response from his players following their loss to Wigan last time out.

"The defeat at Wigan was a blow," said Allardyce. "I think that we never really got out of the blocks from the start and it shows you that anything less than 100 percent when you're newly promoted will reflect on your result.

"We're looking to get back to what we know we can do, against Manchester City it's a necessity for the whole XI to play to their best ability, never mind one or two being off their game.

"If we are to try to achieve a result against the champions of the Premier League we need that," the former Blackburn and Bolton boss added.

Saturday's match is the start of a tough sequence of seven games for the Hammers that also includes fixtures against Newcastle, Stoke, Tottenham, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool.

"We knew about this run of games at the start of the season, that is why we were looking to get the points on the board that we did," Allardyce explained.

"Nine games have passed by and two disappointing results have come away -- at Swansea and Wigan.

"Southampton and Reading will be looking at us and feeling jealous but there is this group of fixtures which are very difficult indeed.

"We accept we probably won't get as many points as we collected in the first part of the season but we have to try to get as many as we can and move onto late December and January."