Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini was disappointed with his side’s finishing after watching Sunderland snatch all three points with an injury-time winner on Sunday (City 8/1 to win Premiership).
The Eastlands outfit drew their first game of the season with Tottenham before hammering Liverpool 3-0 last Monday but they failed to keep up the momentum as Darren Bent’s injury-time penalty made sure all three points remained at the Stadium of Light (Sunderland 12/1 to be relegated).
Emmanuel Adebayor and Yaya Toure missed excellent chances but it was Carlos Tevez who was guilty of the worst miss, blazing over from 12 yards with an empty net ahead of him.
As is so often the case in the Premiership, a team that fails to score when dominating periods of play ends up losing the match – a fact not lost on the City boss.
“Football is very strange,” he said. “We played fantastic football in the first half but if you don’t score, sometimes you can lose these games.
“We had the Carlos chance, but we also had three or four other opportunities.”
Mancini has assembled a world-class squad at the City of Manchester Stadium and is looking to break the dominance of city rivals United and Chelsea at the top of the Premiership, while also battling in the Europa League.
Qualification for next season’s Champions League is thought to be a minimum requirement for the club’s owners, who have already shown that they are not afraid to make changes if things are not going to plan.
Mark Hughes was sacked in December last year with the club still challenging for a European place and the Italian tactician will hope that his strikers are not so profligate in front of goal throughout the rest of the season, or he too might be looking over his shoulder in the New Year.
City are now already five points behind table-topping Chelsea, while Manchester United and Arsenal make up the top three, and Mancini admitted his frustration at letting three points go in a match that seemed destined for a draw.
“I am disappointed because we wanted to win this game,” he added.
“We were good in the first half but in the second half we defended too deep and they put us under a lot of pressure. Every game is difficult and you must play until the last second.”
The north-west club is next in action on September 11, due to the international break, when Sam Allardyce will bring his Blackburn Rovers squad to Eastlands.
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Boss Roy Hodgson has admitted his Liverpool side now face a tough task of qualifying for the Europa League after they could only manage a 1-0 first-leg win in their play-off over Trabzonspor on Thursday night.