David Silva

One of the primary reasons behind Manchester City’s inconsistent form in the 2015-16 season has been the absence of key players like David Silva.

The Spanish playmaker has been able to feature in only 16 league starts. This is in sharp contrast to the time when he was playing almost every game for the club since his £ 24 million move from Valencia in the 2010-11 season. Even though his goals and assist statistics have improved on a per game basis, his lack of minutes on the pitch has become a real problem for the club.

Silva will continue to miss key matches and one of them could be against Tottenham this weekend. However, manager Manuel Pellegrini has confirmed that the player will be available for this top of the table clash along with defender Vincent Kompany. The latter has also been injury prone in the last few years. Silva is a crucial member of the team when it comes to making his team play at a high tempo. This was clearly missing from City in the recent 3-1 defeat against title favourites Leicester City. Despite his less minutes on the pitch, Silva has contributed two goals and eight assists in the league.

Pellegrini remains confident the player will be able to shake off his injury problems. "They are two very important players. David has been playing with a problem with his ankle for the last four or five games and I hope now he will be better. Vincent is coming back from a long injury and obviously he's a very important player for our team. I think that every player who plays the game must be 100 percent to play. Vincent is working the last three weeks without any problem. He played 45 minutes in a friendly game with the under-21s so I think now he's ready to play," said Pellegrini.