He will come good
Revealed: Why City's Nasri is Prem's biggest chancer
Published 22:30 19/01/12 By David McDonnell
Manchester City midfielder Samir Nasri will be back to haunt old foes Tottenham in Sunday's first v third showdown.
After suffering a mid-season dip in form, the £24million summer signing from Arsenal star has rediscovered his touch to become officially the most effective playmaker in the Premier League.
Nasri destroyed Spurs on his City debut at White Hart Lane last August, setting up three goals in a 5-1 win.
He may have lost out on the man-of-the-match bubbly to four-goal Edin Dzeko that day, but the France international certainly served notice of the devastating threat he can pose when on top form.
Since that day however, Nasri has found it hard to nail down a regular spot under boss Roberto Mancini, even though the stats confirm his status as the Premier League's most frequent supplier of chances.
The Frenchman has been a source of frustration for Mancini at times - a player blessed with intelligent passing and elegant movement, but also one who can be guilty of drifting onto the periphery of games.
While Nasri is accomplished going forward, the Italian's concerns over the 24-year-old's defensive contributions have seen him overlooked for games against Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool.
The stats show that Nasri creates a chance every 23.7 minutes played - a better rate than those of team-mate David Silva, Chelsea's Juan Mata, Gareth Bale of Spurs and Manchester United's Ryan Giggs.
But Mancini wants him to make an even greater contribution to City's push for the title.
"Nasri is a champion, a top, top player - but I think he can do more," he said.
"When you change clubs, sometimes you can have a problem, but I would like him to play better, because he is a top player."
Despite his clear contribution to the team's success, sporadic flashes of quality like those Nasri has produced this season are not enough to satisfy a perfectionist like Mancini.
England winger Adam Johnson is another of City's players to suffer under the Italian's hardline approach.
Only last month Nasri admitted he needed to improve the defensive aspect of his game, adding more discipline to his creative talents, with Mancini not prepared to indulge players with no concept of graft as well as guile, despite the attacking threat they may possess.
City face a huge test over the next few weeks in coping without key midfielder Yaya Toure, who, along with team-mate and brother Kolo, is on African Cup of Nations duty with Ivory Coast.
While City would appear to have enough cover in defence so as not to miss Kolo, the same cannot be said for Yaya, current African Footballer of the Year, whose influence on Mancini's side is huge.
Kolo admitted it was a wrench to leave City at such a crucial stage of the title race, but claimed he and Yaya had no choice but to abandon their club for a month to fulfil their international obligations.
"When you leave your club it's always very difficult," said Kolo. But we need to play for our country and try to do as well as we can.
"It's tough, but we are in a situation where the countries always win, and for us it's difficult."
Despite his and Yaya's enforced absence, Kolo claimed City's squad is strong enough to cope without them and stay on course for the title.
"There are some great players in the team," said Kolo. "Recent results have been tough but we have a great squad of players and I know that those players and the manager are really strong - they will get more good results.
"I'm looking forward to hopefully winning the Premier League again. I won it with Arsenal and would be so glad to win it with Manchester City as well."
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OPPORTUNITIES KNOCK: PREM'S TOP CHANCE CREATORS
Player_________________Chances___Mins played___Mins per chance
Nasri, Man City ....................43...........1018.................23.7
Mata, Chelsea......................60 ...........1457.................24.3
Giggs, Man United................26............663...................25.5
Silva Man City......................59...........1610..................27.3
Gower, Swansea...................35...........1033..................29.5
Nani, Man United..................54...........1631..................30.2
Murphy, Fulham....................55...........1676..................30.5
Bale, Tottenham...................59..........1800....................30.5
Lennon, Tottenham...............26..........858......................33.0
Van der Vaart, Tottenham......42..........1396....................33.2
Morrison, West Brom............36..........1263.....................35.1
Van Persie, Arsenal..............48...........1804.....................37.6
Pennant, Stoke....................28..........1057......................37.8
