Skipper available for City clash, Benítez confirms

Lascelles sat out Sunday’s narrow defeat to Chelsea with an ankle injury, and the skipper was also absent as the Magpies exited the Carabao Cup following a 3-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night.

However, the 24-year-old has returned to training in the run-up to this weekend’s trip to the reigning Premier league champions – a timely boost to boss Benítez, who will be without midfielder Jonjo Shelvey (thigh) and winger Matt Ritchie (knee).

“In terms of injuries, Shelvey and Ritchie are still not available. Manquillo has been training but is not in the squad. Lascelles was training and is available,” the Spaniard said.

“Obviously, for us, he is an important player. When you miss some players in important games, you know that they will be even more difficult. But when you have players coming back, it is a boost for the confidence and hopefully he can be the difference.”

Though United – like another 12 sides in the Premier League – failed to take a point against City last term, they ran Pep Guardiola’s side reasonably close both home and away.

With the Citizens flying high once more, Benítez acknowledged that everything will have to fall into place for his side if they are to pick up a first win of the campaign on Saturday, and gave an impassioned defence to United’s approach during Sunday’s agonising loss to the Blues.

“I think that we knew from the beginning that it’d be a difficult season. You see the fixtures, and they are quite complicated for us, but OK, we were expecting something like that and we have to be prepared to play against them in the best way possible,” the Magpies’ boss said. “We will try to manage our squad, we will try to get a good result, and that is it. 11 vs. 11, you never know – that is football.

“When I was at Extremadura, my first game in Barcelona, we did really, really well and we lost 1-0. So, against this team, everything has to be perfect if you are to get a result. And then again, I will say something that some people do not want to understand – you have to have ambition, but you have to be realistic, so the best way for us to get results and achieve what we want to achieve – the main thing is to stay in the Premier League at the moment – is to be realistic and manage expectations. We can come here and say, ‘We will attack, we will play with three strikers, and everyone will be happy,’ and after, you can lose 6-0.

“We are really ambitious, but we are realistic, and we have experience. What we have to achieve is to stay in the Premier League. How do we want to achieve that? Getting results. Where? We will see. How? Trying to play nice and good football if we can. If we cannot, some games we have to manage. It doesn’t mean that we have to play this way every time, or that our tactics are like that – it means that is the best for our club, and we want to achieve something that is so massive and so important for this city, that is to stay in the Premier League. We need to find a way to do it. Nobody knows our players better than us, so I have a lot of confidence in them and I am really proud of them, because we did what we did in the last two years. To be realistic does not mean you don’t have ambition.”