Landmark Lampard goal caps win with high price for Manchester City

Injuries to Dzeko and Kompany heap more misery on hamstrung Pellegrini

Manchester City's Frank Lampard celebrates his goal during the English Premier League match against Leicester City at King Power Stadium in Leicester, England, on December 13, 2014. Kieran Galvin / EPShow more

LEICESTER // Manchester City midfielder Frank Lampard notched a trademark goal on Saturday to draw level with Thierry Henry in fourth place on the list of leading English Premier League goalscorers.

Lampard arrived late in the box to steer in a cross and secure his team’s 1-0 win at Leicester City, the 175th league goal of his prolific career.

“I’m very happy with it. I thought it was going to be out of my reach,” Lampard told the BBC.

“I have respect for Henry, he is one of the greatest in Premier League history and to be up there with him his incredible.”

Lampard, 36, scored the vast majority of his goals for Chelsea, and his landmark strike for City kept his new team in touch with his former club at the top of the table.

The defending league champions trail Jose Mourinho’s side by three points following a fifth successive league win.

“Those are the kind of games we need to get results. We needed to grind them out,” Lampard said.

“We were not at our best, but got three points. I’ve watched Leicester and seen, even though they are down near the bottom, they are not short of passion.

“We were nowhere near the force we can be sometimes, but you have to show two sides to your game and I think we did that today.”

Meanwhile, City manager Manuel Pellegrini said after the game that captain Vincent Kompany and striker Edin Dzeko will miss the rest of 2014 after suffering injuries at Leicester.

Bosnia international Dzeko sustained a calf problem in the warm-up and was unable to start the match, while Belgium defender Kompany was hit by a recurrence of his nagging hamstring strain toward the end of the match at the King Power Stadium.

The double setback adds to City’s growing injury list, and it leaves Pellegrini short of bodies in the attacking department, with strikers Sergio Aguero and Stevan Jovetic already sidelined.

Top scorer Aguero damaged knee ligaments in last weekends's victory over Everton and could be sidelined for eight weeks.

The problems and lack of offensive firepower up front forced Pellegrini to draft 18-year-old forward Jose Angel Pozo into his starting line-up at Leicester, and the youngster could now get further chances.

“We will see with Jose Pozo,” the manager said. “We have other young players in the [youth] squad Patrick Vieira manages. We will see, also, another way to play, but we are not going to complain about injuries.”

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