ROBERTO MANCINI ADMITS Manchester City’s title bid will be over if Manchester United win their next two games.
Alex Ferguson’s side face Blackburn Rovers tonight before hosting QPR on Sunday, while City face a trip to Arsenal later that same day.
Victory for United in both games would move them eight points clear at the top of the Premier League before City kick off against Arsene Wenger’s side at the Emirates.
“If we go eight points behind then it is finished,” Mancini said. ”It’s clear we are disappointed. We have made some mistakes, me and the team. We have also been unlucky, like losing three or four key players at an important moment.
“But when you are a strong team you should be able to pass these difficult moments. Yet football can change in two or three games. I had an experience in Italy with Inter Milan when we were five points behind with five games to go yet we still went on to win the title.”
However, captain Vincent Kompany has insisted that City are still in with a shout of the title despite United’s advantage.
“We’d have to finish the job by beating them (United) at home,” he said. ”We’ll still keep believing, it’s just not as easy as it was.”
Edin Dzeko is also refusing to give up hope of Manchester City winning the Premier League title despite dropping more points at the weekend against Sunderland. City found themselves 3-1 down at home to the Mackems but salvaged a late point with goals from Mario Balotelli and Aleksandar Kolarov.
And the Bosnian international believes Mancini’s men must now beat Arsenal this weekend to still have a chance of securing top spot at the end of the season.
“There are seven games to play, and the way we dropped points, United can drop points as well, so everything is still open,” Dzeko said. ”We need to go from game to game and try to win every match. The next is Arsenal. We will play to win and then we will see.
“They are fighting for a Champions League place and are a top team, so it won’t be easy. It should be a good, open game. Maybe we thought Saturday was going to be easy. We had won all our home games so maybe we thought we could count on all three points – but it’s not like that, and you have to fight for every point.
“It is an important game for Blackburn as well so everything is possible. We lost points on Saturday, and they could drop them at Blackburn or somewhere else.”
Close in on 4th = Are in 6th place which will be 7th place after spurs play their game in hand
@Chief: I’m on my way to being a millionaire after buying a ticket today.
@Chief: close in on 4th= 3 points closer to 4th than 3 hours ago.
Does that mean a couple of more wins and they be closing in on top spot? Daft journslism
@Mel Finn: playing to the gallery.
Peter Wright looking good in darts.
@Paul Gorry: dont know we weren’t watching it? Your in the wrong article again..
@Pauly Kel: Happy new year pauly, it was just a jest.
@Paul Gorry: you too man.
@Paul Gorry: obsessed. Typical scouser.
@Pauly Kel: appreciated Pauly.
@Karl Ó Cléirigh: give over karl my comment was light hearted for a bit of craic.now your comment is looking like you’re obsessed?
@Paul Gorry: I don’t see it that way but hey all you scouse fans are the same.
@Karl Ó Cléirigh: ok karl iam trying to relise ye a good bloke or a bad bloke?But now realise yer a bad bloke. Yer immature comment says it all really.
@Paul Gorry: grow up haha
@Karl Ó Cléirigh: oh the irony karl.
@Paul Gorry: the irony being you (a Liverpool fan) putting a smart comment on a United story and people are calling you out on it and you’re getting defensive?! Very ironic don’t you think?…..
What has Ferguson’s 80th birthday got to do with it?
@PeterC: got to do, got to do with it?
Strange lack of liverpool and Chelsea fans passing comments on man utds performance here tonight after the last couple of nights..
@Pol Mlp: i would have pol but I was watching the darts. More exciting to be fair.
@Paul Gorry: good point…anderson v humphries will be a 180 fest on new years day methinks
@Paul Gorry: Don’t think you can objectively say “more exciting to be fair” if you only watched the darts. That’s a rather silly comment to make in fairness. If you watched both you could make that comparison. What was better on the 28th? Liverpool or the darts?
@Pol Mlp: Liverpool and Chelsea fans only worry about teams at the top end of the table. Not mid table teams like utd.
@David Gaffney: liverpool obviously. Iam fluck ing having a laugh here David. Lighten up.
Really. Here we go they draw with Newcastle and win tonight against teams that more than likely will get relegated. Oh well done Utd
@Marcus Springfield: your correct. They should only report on games that United lose.
@Marcus Springfield: Really? Oh really??
@Brian Dunne: Yeah and especially the games where they get hammered… It makes some sleep well at nite here. So dull when there’s no United bashing to be had in the comments section!
@Brian Dunne: they would run out of ink then ;)
Dillusional. 4th place is Westham Spurs or Arsenal. Utd are done.
@Paul Smith: on the sherry early then…
@Paul Smith: Yeah you wish… The usual garbage… Top 4 is open to a few teams this year and it’ll be interesting regardless of who you support
3pts. Good game from mcsauce. A game of two halves, first exciting, second boring af. Onto the next one. Jack Byrne an assured presence in the studio on the punditry.
@Fred spins kdb: Definitely a better performance than recently + Wan Bissaka looked better tonight…still a lot of work to do but some positives even if the 2nd half was a snooze fest!
Looks like Scotty Mac got some new shooting boots off Santy… 1st half was good, 2nd half not so good.. 3 points and move on hopefully win the game in hand over West Ham and Arsenal.. And hope that Spurs make a mess of theirs
As United fan I wouldn’t make such a statement about them pushing for fourth just one win after a dismal match against Newcastle. If the top is where we want to be then we should constantly be demanding more, not getting ahead of ourselves over short term success.
Liverpool and Chelsea looking wobbly.
Well, considering Utd will be doing well to get 60 points this season, you can understand understand them wanting to celebrate one of their own achieving any sort of 80 this season !!!