Pellegrini praises Lampard's leadership

Manuel Pellegrini has set his sights on keeping Frank Lampard at Manchester City beyond his current loan spell with the Premier League champion.

Pellegrini's side beat last-place Leicester 1-0 on Saturday, thanks to Lampard's 175th Premier League goal five minutes before halftime at King Power Stadium.

The former Chelsea midfielder has now scored six goals on loan from Major League Soccer's New York City, and Pellegrini would dearly love to keep the 36-year-old at Eastlands for a larger portion of the season.

But with his loan due to expire in January, there has been no decision on Lampard's future yet.

"Frank is very important, one of the reasons he played today was it was important to refresh the team," Pellegrini said.

"He is a top player, a team leader ... and he must continue scoring goals. He is great inside the box.

"We know exactly what we must do. Frank wants to stay, we want to keep him. We must resolve the problem with New York City and with the MLS."

Whether he stays or not, Lampard's presence will be especially important for City over the next two weeks as Pellegrini battles with a growing injury list heading into the hectic Christmas schedule, with his team three points behind leader Chelsea.

Bosnia striker Edin Dzeko sustained a calf problem in the warm-up and was unable to start against Leicester, while Belgium defender Vincent Kompany was hit by a recurrence of his nagging hamstring strain in the second half at King Power Stadium.

The double setback adds to City's injury problems and leaves Pellegrini short in the attacking department, with strikers Sergio Aguero and Stevan Jovetic already sidelined.

"It's difficult to know what happened with both Vincent and Edin," said Pellegrini.

"Vincent has the same problem with his hamstring as a few weeks ago. That was one of the reasons he did not play on Wednesday against Roma.

"Edin has a muscle injury in his calf so maybe both will be more than a couple of weeks.

"It is impossible that Vincent and Edin will be ready before the New Year. It's difficult ... but I can never complain about players who cannot play."

Pearson stays positive

Leicester's winless streak is now at 11 games, but manager Nigel Pearson was pleased with his team's performance, if not the result.

"It was a disappointing result today and we did not deserve it," he said.

"We're looking for results, I'm pleased with the way the players went about the game. Sometimes you can't break teams down.

"Ultimately we've not converted key chances for ourselves and have had an inability to keep a clean sheet."

Ben Hamer was in goal for Leicester after Kasper Schmeichel had surgery on Friday on a broken metatarsal.

"The operation went well," said Pearson. "Four to six weeks is an optimistic recovery time, but if it turns out to be a bit longer, it will be what it is."