MANCHESTER (AFP) — Sven Goran Eriksson is ready to restore Brazilian playmaker Elano to Manchester City's starting line-up in the League Cup quarter-final against Tottenham, despite seeing his side secure a ninth straight Premier League home win with a 4-2 victory against Bolton.
Goals at Eastlands from Rolando Bianchi, Darius Vassell, Kelvin Etuhu and Lubomir Michalik's own goal sealed victory for City against a Bolton team that had briefly led 2-1 through El-Hadji Diouf and Kevin Nolan.
But with City aiming to reach their first major cup semi-final since 1981, former England coach Eriksson is planning to bring back five-goal top scorer Elano, out for two weeks with a hamstring injury, against Spurs on Tuesday.
"Elano will hopefully be fit for Tuesday. He is a fantastic player and we are hoping that everything is okay with him," Eriksson said after a win that maintained City's push for European football next season.
"It is good to go into that game with a victory, though. We started well and scored a good goal, but it looked very bad for us at half-time after Bolton had taken the lead," the Swede added.
"When the players came in at half-time, I told them that they looked like losers. They looked like a losing team and I told them to their faces that they wouldn't win the game like that. But they were much better in the second-half and they deserved to win the game in the end."
Italian striker Bianchi set City on their way to victory with his seventh minute goal, his fourth for the club since arriving in an 8.8 million pounds pre-season move.
Bianchi has struggled to nail down a starting place this season, but Eriksson insisted that he has been a model professional while waiting for his chance to impress.
He said: "Bianchi has behaved extremely well, even though he hasn't played much lately. But he worked very hard and did what he is supposed to do. He scored an important goal as well.
"It can sometimes be difficult for foreign strikers to do well in their first season in the Premiership. Many clubs, like Bolton, are very strong down the middle and that makes it more difficult for strikers."
Bolton, who defeated Manchester United 1-0 at the Reebok last month, suffered their second successive heavy defeat on the road following a recent 4-0 thumping at Liverpool.
And manager Gary Megson admitted his team must improve their away form if they are to make a quick escape from the relegation zone.
"We have done this to ourselves because we seemed to be defending 10 seconds too late all the time.
"We are either going to have to get people from outside the club or those already with us are going to have to step up to the plate and do their job.
"We need to make some improvements away from home because we have conceded four goals at Liverpool and now four goals here. It's not good enough just to perform at home, but not do it when we are away."
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