Roberto Mancini says Chelsea will still win the league
Roberto Mancini, the manager of Manchester City is trying hard to make new friends in the league, but is also making sure that he hangs onto the old ones. Carlo Ancelotti, the Chelsea manager was his rival number in Italy but is
also a good friend; the 2 played together for Italy back in the day.
After beating Ancelotti’s Chelsea 1-0 on Saturday, Mancini still insists that Premier League pacesetters will retain their title.
Mancini was criticised in some quarters for his suggestion that the West Londoners would win the League "easily" before the two sides met on Saturday. Many had taken those comments as a defensive move by the Italian; however his
team managed to give Chelsea a big fight and ended up winning the match. There was a suggestion that his stance would change after beating the blues, but he said his opinion was unchanged after Champione were beaten at Eastlands.
Mancini said "I still think they will win it easily because I think they are the best team in the Premier League," Mancini said.
"Sometimes you might get a result like today. But they are the better team."
Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti's side went into the match with an unblemished record in the league, having scored 21 goals on their way to winning all five previous games. Not only Mancini but many had already tipped Chelsea to
easily retain the title this year.
Before the match kicked off Chelsea were believed to be the dominant side, but fellow Italian Mancini masterminded a gritty City win, frustrating the visitors with a packed midfield and patient approach that involved getting men
behind the ball and waiting for Chelsea to over-commit in attack.
The tactic paid off just before the hour when Captain Carlo Tevez scored a superb breakaway winner but Mancini was not in the mood to gloat.
"It is not possible for them to score five goals every game," the City boss added.
"If Chelsea find space it is easy for them to score. But if they don't have space it is too hard and our players defended very well.
"But we cannot think everything is OK just because we won this game."
Ancelotti praised his fellow countryman for City's approach.
"We didn't play how we wanted," Ancelotti reflected.
"They won a lot of tackles in midfield and we conceded a lot of counter-attacks. We were not able to use speed in our play because there was no space.
"We played too complicated in the opening half so we didn't have a chance to score.
"They used a good tactic to play against us. To play against us they wanted to counter attack and they did some very well. We knew this but from one counter-attack they scored.
"If you play against a good team with a strong defence and you don't play at your best then it is normal that you don't score a goal.
"They have fantastic players and a very good squad and they can fight for the title."
When Roberto Mancini took over Manchester City he had huge expectations from the fans and from the board. The Dubai based Business group who had bought the club were pumping in cash and had said that they wanted to make City a
strong title contender. Mancini however has said that he has feet on the ground, and despite a spending spree in the summer of 130 million pounds the manager believes that his team would be happy with a top 4 finish. He added that winning the title may come
next season and for now Chelsea is the team to win the league.
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