Manchester City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson says the disruption of international weeks is part and parcel of being a Premier League manager.Eriksson has been unable to call on a number of his squad this week as City prepare for Sunday's Manchester derby.

But the City boss, who knows the build-up has not been ideal, also accepted the Manchester United are "in the same boat".

City will be bolstered on Thursday by the return to training of Micah Richards, Richard Dunne, Vedran Corluka, Martin Petrov, Gelson Fernandes, Jihai Sun, Joe Hart, Andreas Isaksson and Kasper Schmeichel ahead of the Old Trafford showdown,

"It's not ideal - but United are in the same boat. They have a lot of players away this week, but we have to live with it as well and not complain about it.

"The alternative is to buy players who are not international standard, and I don't think that's a good idea," Eriksson told the club's website.

"United did not start this season so well but now they are playing brilliant football, either United or Arsenal will win the league without a doubt.

"We haven't played at our best in the last two or three games, and it is time that we got back to that to get something from the game on Sunday.

"We have to be playing good football, we need to learn from how we played against Arsenal last week. It's going to be difficult, but we're going to try to play at our best."

More Football News from TEAMtalk