Mancini wary of Wolves pack

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini knows his side will have to be at their best to avoid an upset when Wolves visit Eastlands on Saturday.

Having been held by Leicester in the FA Cup and seen several other upsets in the past week, Mancini is aware that Wolves have an excellent record against the English Premier League’s big guns.

“Against Leicester, we were told it would easy. Newcastle lost against Stevenage, Derby lost against Crawley and Arsenal lost against Ipswich,” he said.

“Here every game is very strange. If you don’t play 200 percent then you risk losing. Against Wolves we must play very well if we want to win. They beat Liverpool, they beat Chelsea and some would say they don’t deserve to stay near the bottom.”

“They have a good manager and they have good players so it will be difficult.”

Striker Mario Balotelli will miss the clash with a knee problem and could be out for up to three weeks, a factor which could see want-away forward Emmanuel Adebayor remain at the club after he had been linked with Real Madrid.

New 27 million-pound signing Edin Dzeko from Wolfsburg could be thrown into the fold for the Wolves meeting, but Mancini has doubts over the Bosnian’s fitness after just coming back from the German winter break.

“He’s a good player, he has a good head and he’s worked very well so far,” he said.

“I don’t know if it’s possible he will play against Wolves as he came from a break in Germany. I think that he’s in good shape but he needs to work. We must wait today and tomorrow then we’ll decide.”

Micah Richards joins Balotelli in missing the visit of Wolves, but David Silva returns to the squad after recovering from a knee injury.

One player definitely not a transfer target for the club is highly rated Tottenham winger Gareth Bale, despite speculation to the contrary.

“I never said that (we were after him),” Mancini said.

“I did an interview with an Italian newspaper and the journalist asked me about Bale. I said he is a fantastic player. This year he has played very well, but I never said we want to buy him.”