Manchester City face Championship side Middlesbrough on Saturday in the Fourth round of the F.A. Cup.

Fresh off an absolutely vital win against Hamburg in the United Arab Emirates a couple of days ago, Manchester City finally are approaching full fitness. The only absences of note are Samir Nasri and Frank Lampard. Lampard will hopefully be back pretty soon, while Nasri is probably out until the first week of February at the earliest. Yaya Toure is obviously still away with the Ivory Coast in the Cup of Nations.

With Edin Dzeko putting in a good performance capped with a great goal against Hamburg in the week, you would hope that the Dzeko – Aguero partnership can finally start again up front. This will probably be the best option in the absence of Samir Nasri, with Sergio Aguero being able to drop a little deeper to try and cover for the Frenchman’s absence.

A win against Middlesbrough does more than just keep us alive in the cup

It is tempting to underestimate Middlesbrough, but this is the last thing Manchester City, and Manuel Pellegrini should do at this stage. Given the disappointing results recently against both Arsenal and Everton, City need a lift. A convincing performance and a win against Middlesbrough does more than just keep us alive in the cup, it also gives us that little bit extra momentum going into the big game against Chelsea at the end of January.

Pellegrini is obviously taking the game seriously, stating that Manchester City will need “100% intensity and concentration” in order to avoid any slip-ups, implying a strong line-up is more than likely. Hopefully a bit more pressure as well.

That said, injuries before the Chelsea game could be pretty catastrophic. Ideally, Manchester City could have the game comfortably in their control by the hour mark, allowing Pellegrini to take off some of the more crucial players.

Every City fan always wants to see some young players brought through from the academy, something Pellegrini has looked loathe to do so far, apart from the emergency drafting in of Jose Angel Pozo. There will almost certainly be some youth representation on the bench, and they may well be called on to replace some first teamers in the latter stages if all goes well.