LONDON (AFP) - Tottenham striker Emmanuel Adebayor believes that Manchester City's Premier League title push could be derailed by January's African Cup of Nations tournament.
City will lose influential brothers Yaya Toure and Kolo Toure to the Ivory Coast squad for the January 21-February 12 event while Spurs will be unaffected with Adebayor's Togo banned from taking part. "They have two players going to the African Nations Cup. Kolo Toure is not playing a lot but he is a great player," Adebayor said. "Yaya Toure has been amazing for them this year.
"We will have to wait and see (how they cope). In football you can have two or three injuries in a week. That has happened to us recently. "City have a great team, a great spirit and at the moment they are playing good football, but if they got a couple of injuries I think it would be very difficult for them."
The tournament in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon coincides with City facing Spurs, Everton, Fulham and Aston Villa. The Toure brothers will also miss the game against Wigan on January 16 due to the Ivory Coast's training camp.
Chelsea will lose Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou, while Arsenal will be without Gervinho, Alex Song and Emmanuel Frimpong. "We will have everyone here when the African Nations Cup is on," added the 27-year-old Adebayor. Meanwhile, City winger Adam Johnson is desperate to cement a regular place in Roberto Mancini's side to guarantee his spot in England's Euro 2012 squad.
His stunning strike in the midweek win over Stoke, which kept City clear at the top of the English Premier League, should ensure he starts Monday's match at West Brom.
"Obviously I’m disappointed I haven’t played as many games as I would like, everyone wants to play games," said the 24-year-old. "But I think that was my fifth Premier League goal so it’s all I can keep doing, scoring goals and getting goals and playing well, then hopefully force my way in. "The players we have, it’s packed in areas, obviously the manager rotates certain players around, but I have to keep working hard and keep trying to play. When I found out I was starting against Stoke I was happy and I don’t mind the rotation system as long as it is fair, hopefully that’s going to continue.”