City boss worried about spirit of his side

From Back Page Pellegrini is unlikely to be sacked before the end of the season. However, Patrick Vieira has impressed in his work with the club’s elite development squad and is believed to be willing to step in as interim manager until the end of the season if Pellegrini goes. He is in charge of City’s Under-21 development squad and is being groomed as a future manager at the Etihad. Pellegrini admitted the spirit within his squad is a concern. City are five points above fifth-placed Southampton ahead of next Sunday’s game at home to West Ham. ‘We are concerned to try and win the next game,’ said Pellegrini. ‘United and Arsenal have to play against Chelsea. We have 18 points more to play for and we now have two games at home, so we must try to recover from this defeat.’ United’s win in front of their jubilant supporters ended a run of four successive Manchester derby defeats. Van Gaal claimed United’s 4-3 advantage on aggregate in this season’s two derbies with City means they can consider themselves to be the top team in Manchester. He said: ‘It’s great to be a supporter of Man United right now. You are playing for the fans and at the start of the season it was not fantastic to be a United fan. We had 11 matches and 13 points and still they supported us. This week they can go on the streets, head up and say, “we are the better team because goal average is in our favour”. ‘We are now four points ahead of City in third place which is very important because it gets you automatic qualification into the Champions League. ‘The goal we set was to get into the top four and I’ll be very pleased if we reach that goal.’