Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini fears he will have only three fit defenders for Saturday's clash with Chelsea and may have to field an emergency left-back if Micah Richards fails to recover from injury.
Despite owner Sheikh Mansour's £300million outlay on new players, Mancini is desperately short of defensive options for the visit of Carlo Ancelotti's men following last night's 2-1 Carling Cup defeat at West Brom.
If Richards is ruled out by his hamstring injury, Mancini will have only Pablo Zabaleta, Vincent Kompany and Kolo Toure as certain starters in his backline.
"We have big problems," he said. "If Richards doesn't recover, I don't know who can play left-back."
The Italian will have to choose between England players Adam Johnson, James Milner and Gareth Barry to fill the left-back berth.
Mancini's position is so precarious at Eastlands that he dare not lose two games in succession.
Last season he was happy to try to win the Carling Cup but the Italian knows he has to deliver the Premier League title and Champions League football.
He has rounded on the Premier League for the way fixtures have been scheduled this weekend, which he believes will give Chelsea an extra edge - despite both sides having played last night.
"When we have to play teams like Arsenal and Chelsea it is important you have all the time to prepare the players for a big game. We are playing at Chelsea at 12.45 on Saturday and this is dangerous for my players," he said.
"That does not give them enough time to recover from the game in midweek. That is only two days before such an important game and we have to travel to London."
