Injured Robbie: City Are Title Contenders

Robinho, currently knacked whilst in South America with the Brazil squad boldly states that Manchester City can win the Premier League title. Gulp...!

We know that somewhere along the lines of translation last week Robinho revealed to the Brazilian media that he had asked to stay on the bench for the Portsmouth game due to an ankle injury. He also told the journalists that playing for Brazil was 'more important.' Well, outside of that faux pas, he's generally remained steadfast in his positivity towards our Manchester club.

Well, this week, he's gone one further:

'The club have set their sights high this year and backed that up in the transfer market. We've built a stronger squad than last year and can handle any team.

'There have been great additions - now we need to understand we must be stronger mentally. We can be like that this season and have what it takes to go for the title. The more I think about it, the more I think this year must be our year.'

If anything, his quotes intensify the growing sense of belief across Planet Blue that Mark Hughes is forging a dynamically focused team capable of mixing it with the best and who can make things happen.

That belief will really start to be put to the test when Arsenal come to Eastlands for our first 'Big Four' clash of the season this weekend.

Robinho, alongside Argentina's Carlos Tevez, was already likely to play a reduced role against The Gooners due to having only landed back in Manchester from World Cup duty a day or so beforehand. But now he will miss the Brazilian's clash with Chile due to a thigh injury.

This situation would have constituted something of a crisis for us during last season's gruelling 56 game campaign but Sparky now has enough high calibre depth within his squad to more than compensate for such absences.

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