If we look at the current league table, two teams look to be fighting with each other in and outside the field and that is Manchester City and Chelsea. One of these two would probably be the champion this year and guess what City is not missing any opportunity to pressurize José Mourinho side either. Though, The Blues are on top while City is on the fourth place, but they have three matches in hand and just six points adrift of North London club, which means, they can lead the table anytime if they could win at least two of the next four. Again, all the four placeholders are there on the top for quite some time, and there are not too many matches left this season; hence no other team is likely to replace any of them. City manager Manuel Pellegrini appreciated his team’s fighting spirit and keeping Chelsea top position as misleading as former Everton manager has been describing off late. They just defeated Hull by 2-0 and alive their hopes to replace their Stamford Bridge opponent. Their match with Hull is specifically mentionable coz they had lost Vincent Kompany to Red Card within first ten minutes of the game but they did not let this loss overcome them and ruled the field for full ninety minutes.
Taking last week as the toughest for Man City, Pellegrini said, “It was a very good response. It was a very difficult week. And then we had to start this game playing with one player less after 10 minutes. It was more difficult to play with 10 players but I trust the team, I trust the players and I think we did really well with the ball.”
Since they are out of both FA cup and Championship league, English topflight is the last hope for Pellegrini to fulfill his earlier promise that he would win at least one title this year. Talking about Vincent Red Card, Chilean football manager added, “I thought before it was clear foul by Jelavic – before Vincent did his foul. But the referee didn’t see it, he saw the foul of Kompany and he sent him off. It was not the best way to start our return to the Premier League. It was a clear foul by Jelavic but we won the game playing very well.
“I trust my players and the team. We kept the ball very well today – and without the ball you cannot make damage. We scored an important goal and had three clear chances to score another goal. I don’t remember any clear chances for Hull.”