Man City have hinted at Liam Delap and Kayky plans for rest of the season

Manchester City's use of Liam Delap has been telling in the last three games.

After injury troubles plagued his start to the season and restricted Delap to just four under-23 appearances, the prolific academy striker returned to training last month and was quickly fast-tracked back into the first-team setup.

City initially indicated that Delap would make his comeback in the Premier League 2 trip to his former club Derby, but he was a surprise inclusion two days earlier for the home clash with Fulham in the FA Cup at the Etihad. He came off the bench and almost scored on his return to the first team, but saw his diving header ruled out for offside.

He did indeed play in that Derby game, helping City to an important win in the PL2, before making the following two Premier League benches against Brentford and Norwich. An eight-minute cameo at Norwich was followed by a Champions League debut at Sporting this week, with Delap taking advantage of injuries to other first-teamers, as well as big leads established in those games.

Since his return, the 19-year-old has been given three more senior outings in four games, and has been a go-to option for Pep Guardiola to turn to when he wants something different up front.

Of course, it's hard for Delap to influence games in less than 15 minutes, especially when City have built up good leads, but any senior experience is invaluable at this stage of his career, especially after so long out injured this season.

"He is a type of striker we don’t have, a killer, typical British striker," Guardiola said after his Fulham return.

"The only problem was injured and after injured and after injured, he struggled a lot with his ankles but he has a special quality. "He's a special striker we don’t