Sergio Aguero will miss the Manchester derby Manuel Pellegrini has confirmed.

The City boss says there is a slight chance the Argentina striker will make the trip to Arsenal, but only if he has a full week of training behind him.

Matija Nastasic is no nearer returning to fitness, though Stevan Jovetic makes a welcome return to the squad for the visit of Fulham.

“Maybe next week Sergio will start working with the squad, but I don’t think that he will be able to train for the whole week,” said Pellegrini.

“I think it’s more likely that maybe towards the end of the week he can be with the squad and start training. It is possible he could be available for next weekend but we will have to wait and see.  Jovetic is in the squad list for tomorrow. Nastasic continues with some pain in his knee, he has at least a couple more weeks to recover.”

Sergio Aguero Shouting v Hull A39O2570

On the media stories linking Kun to Barcelona, the manager added: “We cannot talk every week about players that are coming here to Manchester City and the players that are going out.

“Aguero is a Manchester City player, he is very happy here and the club is very happy to have him.”

After City’s surprise home defeat to Wigan in the last home game, Pellegrini says that Fulham will be no pushovers, even though they currently prop up the Premier League.

“All the teams near the bottom, not only in the relegation zone but in the lower half of the table have to try to add points from somewhere.

“Felix Magath’s teams always play with a lot of intensity. I am sure we need to work hard during the game if we want to win. This is the start of a very important week and the most important game is Fulham because this is our next game.

“We have experience here against Wigan, Palace and Stoke where each game it proved very difficult to score a goal, so there shouldn’t be anybody thinking Fulham it is not a tough game.

“We know they are in a relegation position at the bottom of the table, but I repeat it doesn’t mean it will be an easy match.

“The players are always trying to take lessons from every game they play. Big games are different, maybe the motivation is not the same from one game to another, but we are now in the last two months of the season and we know that for the moment we depend just on what we can do from now until the end of the season to win the title.

“We continue in the fight with all the other teams. We have to play the three games we have in hand and we will see how we play those games but at the moment I think the four teams have the same chance.”