Roberto Mancini claims his Manchester City side need to beat teams like Newcastle, who they face on Sunday, to ensure a Premier League top-four finish this season (City 1/3 to finish in Top 4).
The Italian manager saw his side beat Chelsea at Eastlands last weekend to end the west London side’s 100 per cent start to the campaign. City have also drawn with Arsenal and beaten Liverpool so far this season, but it has been the results against the so-called lesser teams that have hampered them.
Many fans would see this as a repeat to last season’s frustrations, they beat Chelsea home and away and also recorded victories over Arsenal but ultimately it was a failure to put away smaller teams that saw them get pipped to the Champions League qualification spot by Spurs (10/1 to finish in the top four this season).
City have experienced defeat at Sunderland and also a home draw with Blackburn in the opening months of the season, however they still sit fourth in the table and only four points off leaders Chelsea.
The club host Newcastle (15/2 to win the game, draw 10/3) to Eastlands on Sunday lunch-time and Mancini will have to do without Pabla Zabaleta, who injured him hamstring in the Europa League game with Juventus earlier in the week, and it is expected the manager will rest Jerome Boateng.
City (2/5 to win the game) are unbeaten on home turf in their five games in all competition so far this season and Mancini has said he wants them to extend that record as a solid home form is essential to match his minimum requirement of a top four finish.
The manager has told the Manchester Evening News however he knows that Newcastle could pose some problems for his side if they try to turn up and ’shut up shop’.
“We must win against teams such as Newcastle. We must not think that we can win only against Chelsea and Liverpool. If we want to go up the table, we must win also against Newcastle,” said Mancini.
“When a team such as Newcastle or Sunderland face City, they will play more defensively than Chelsea or Liverpool.
“This is the problem. Some teams will put a lot of players behind the ball, and it can be difficult to find a solution to this.”
While Mancini sees the top four as his ambition for the season, City defender Dedryk Boyata is looking even higher and has said the target is “to win the title” (City 9/1 to win Premier League).
The teenage defender claims the side need to “stay focused” if they are to reach that level and look to match the standards that has brought them “great results” against the Premier League big guns.
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