Man City Pre-season Affected by Flight Delays

After suffering two flight cancellations, Manchester City finally departed for China on Monday for pre-season tour. The team was initially scheduled to fly out to Shanghai from Manchester on Saturday but the plane was grounded because they had not been given a permit to fly into Chinese airspace.

Rescheduled to fly out on Sunday, the trip was called off again as the issued had not been resolved in time. The problem was finally solved by Monday allowing Pep Guardiola and his squad to finally make the trip. The team is now facing time constraints with regard to preparations for the first game of the tour.

City are due to face West Ham on Wednesday in the first match of the Premier League Asia Trophy competition. The Hammers, alongside other Premier League teams in the mini tournament, Newcastle United and Wolves, have since been in China. With City now short on time before the first game against Manuel Pellegrini’s men, it remains to be seen how the team will fare.

However, Guardiola’s men trained at the City Football Academy on Sunday in preparation for the tournament. It’s expected that the team will be in shape to perform. But that’s not ruling out the effect of jet lag as a result of time spent traveling and it’s proximity to kick off of the first game.