JOSE Fonte admits that the trip to Manchester City on Saturday will be made even more difficult by Graziano Pelle’s absence but has faith that others can fill the void left by the star striker.

Saints’ nine-goal top-scorer Pelle picked up his fifth yellow card of the season in the 1-0 defeat to Stoke at the weekend, meaning he will serve a one-game ban at the Etihad Stadium.

Fonte has his concerns that going to one of the Premier League’s big guns without the Italian could cost them, but is hopeful that Shane Long will take his chance to lead the line.

“Well, we have other players in the team so we need to deal with it,” he said. “We’ll still play with 11 there so we should be all right.”

He added: “Obviously he’s (Pelle) an important part in our team and it is going to be difficult without him.

“But we have trust in the other players as well. We all know the philosophy that we have and we’ll try and play our game there.”

It seems that Long will get the nod to lead the line against Manuel Pellegrini’s side, with Ronald Koeman unable to call upon the injured Jay Rodriguez and unlikely to turn to the inexperienced academy star Ryan Seager, at least not a in starting role.

“It is a good opportunity for Shane to show that he can play up there as well,” Fonte said.  “He’s going to have his chance there so let’s hope he can get some goals.”

City are going into this one off the back a dreadful 4-1 defeat to Liverpool at home. However, the Sky Blues haven’t lost back-to-back home games since December 2008 and will be looking to get back on track.

“We know it’s going to be tough,” Fonte said. “But obviously we’re going to go there and try and get a result.”

The same could be said for Saints who head to the Etihad after a drab performance in the 1-0 defeat to the Potters at St Mary’s. 

Fonte felt the players were tired after international duty, but is hopeful that the squad will be fresher heading to City. 

“We didn’t create enough,” he explained. “We didn’t have clear-cut chances, so today wasn’t our best and we have to move on from this, have a good rest and prepare ourselves for the difficult fixtures that we have now.”

He added: “We didn’t start well and I guess the international break took its toll on us. Most of the players played a lot of minutes and we came back a little bit lethargic and it wasn’t the best of performances.”