Source: Team_Talk
Adebayor in line to face Gunners
Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini admitted Emmanuel Adebayor has played himself into contention to face Arsenal after his hat-trick heroics. Two first-half goals, followed by a tap-in provided by David Silva's brilliant cross helped Adebayor seal his first City treble - and break his barren streak this term - as the Blues recorded a 3-1 Europa League win over Lech Poznan on Thursday night.In defeating the Poles, City were putting themselves in line to reach the knock-out stages with a bit to spare.Of more importance, they were signalling their well-being ahead of an eagerly-anticipated encounter with the Gunners, in which Adebayor will be desperate to start."It is possible he could play against Arsenal," said Mancini."For a striker it is important to play well and his performance was excellent. But it is very important for them to score."Now he has a good chance to play against Arsenal."Mancini still believes he can accommodate Adebayor in his plans even though in-form skipper Carlos Tevez is certain to return against Arsene Wenger's men."It is not a problem," said Mancini."They played together against Blackpool. It is normal for my teams to play with two strikers. That is what I usually like to do."If Adebayor walked away with the match ball and man-of-the-match honours, Silva played an excellent supporting role.After a slow start to his City career the former Valencia star has now settled in and controlled a measured display, which only dipped for a 20-minute spell after half-time when Lech got their goal."For David Silva it is easy to play football," said Mancini."Everything is easy for him. As a team, I thought we played very well in the first half."We scored two goals and did some good things."But we were ordinary in the first 20 minutes of the second."For a little while I was a bit afraid because I thought Lech could cause some problems. But the third goal finished the game."Backed by 6,000 - mainly UK-based - fans, Lech were not too downheartened at losing what they view as the toughest match in the group.Manager Jacek Zielinski said: "Manchester City played extremely well."It was a good lesson for us. We had some plans. The reality turned out to be somewhat different."