Mancini upbeat for league title next year
ROBERTO Mancini insists he knows Manchester City can win the title next season after the Blues beat rivals United 2-1 at Old Trafford on Monday.
The victory, thanks to goals from James Milner and substitute Sergio Aguero either side of a Vincent Kompany own goal, moves the defending champions to within 12 points of runaway leaders United with seven games to go.
Mancini remains defiant the title race is over for this year but is confident his side can regain the crown next time around.
He said: “This win is not important (for next season) but we know that we can win the title next year. This year we know we made some mistakes. We can do nothing. The title is gone. Now we need to continue to play like this.
“This win was important for us for the second position but this shows we did not deserve to be 15 points behind. The title is finished. It does not matter how many points behind. We are not close to them. They scored more than us and that is the difference.”
City opened the scoring when Milner’s shot deflected off Phil Jones and in, but United boss Alex Ferguson was upset as Carlos Tevez appeared to be offside, although he did not touch the ball. “The first goal, certainly Tevez is interfering with play,” said Ferguson. “But the linesman on the other side? There is no way he was giving that.
“It was disappointing as he was clearly in the road of the goalkeeper. If that is not interference then I don’t know what is.”
Robin van Persie’s free kick was not dealt with by Joe Hart for United’s leveller and Phil Jones’s wayward header came off Kompany’s back and found the net.
But Aguero, who had replaced Samir Nasri, raced through the United defence in the 78th minute to fire into the roof of David de Gea’s net.
Despite the defeat, Ferguson remains confident as he prepares his side for a visit to Stoke on Sunday. “We won’t be relaxing,” he said. “If you look at the history of the club we always make it difficult for ourselves.” Sapa-AFP