Africa Cup may tilt title race

The Africa Cup may well shape the course of the Premier League title race as English clubs prepare to lose key players for several weeks at a critical time of the season.

Premier League managers have grumbled about the timing of Africa’s biennial championship for years, complaining about the fact that the tournament deprives them of players just when the fixture list is at its busiest.

But the 2012 tournament, which kicks off in Gabon and Guinea on Saturday, could have an even bigger impact in England than normal as clubs such as Manchester City, Chelsea and Newcastle grapple with several absentees.

Nowhere is the Cup of Nations more unpopular than at Eastlands, where City manager Roberto Mancini is glumly resigned to the loss of Ivorian brothers Yaya Toure and Kolo Toure when his team can least afford it.

In many respects the loss of the Toure duo has already been felt by City, who have led the league for much of the season.

Since the players departed to link up with the Ivory Coast squad earlier this month, City have lost key games against Manchester United in the FA Cup and Liverpool in the semi-final first leg match of the League Cup.

More pertinently, City were comfortable 3-0 winners over Liverpool in the league on Jan. 3, with Yaya Toure influential throughout, before losing 1-0 in the League Cup a week later when the midfielder was missing.

“I have tried to find another Yaya in my squad but there isn’t another Yaya,” said Mancini recently.

“He is a very important player. For this reason January is a big month. If we can stay at the top of the table after January then I think we have a very good chance to win the league.”

Man. City’s nearest challengers, United and Tottenham, will not be affected by the Africa Cup.

None of the Africans in the Spurs squad, including Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor, represent Cup qualifiers, while the lone African on Manchester United’s books, Mame Biram Diouf, has been overlooked by Senegal.

Yet while Spurs and United are primed to pounce on any slip-ups from City, other sides near the top of the table have not been so fortunate.

Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas will be hoping that Spanish striker Fernando Torres finds his goalscoring boots sooner rather than later as the club bids farewell to Ivory Coast duo Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou.

Chelsea’s challengers in the race for a top-four finish, Arsenal, could also suffer from the absence of Ivory Coast’s Gervinho and, to a lesser extent, Moroccan international Marouane Chamakh.

Chamakh has remained a peri-pheral figure at the Emirates this season but Gervinho has been a key source of assists during Robin van Persie’s scoring run.

Africa Cup absentees could also be influential at the other end of the table, with Wigan losing Mohamed Diame as they try to claw their way out of the relegation quagmire along with QPR, who will be without Moroccan playmaker Adel Taarabt and Senegalese defender Armand Traore.