Manuel Pellegrini has admitted Manchester City’s chances of retaining their Barclays Premier League title hinge on them beating Chelsea.
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Manuel Pellegrini has admitted Manchester City’s chances of retaining their Barclays Premier League title hinge on them beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge after a crushing 2-0 defeat against Arsenal.
City were beaten at the Etihad Stadium as Santi Cazorla converted a disputed 24th-minute penalty before the outstanding Olivier Giroud finished them off with a 67th-minute header.
The defeat means Pellegrini’s stumbling side are five points behind Chelsea, who won 5-0 at Swansea on Saturday, ahead of their clash at Stamford Bridge on January 31.
Pellegrini, who was unable to explain City’s dreadful performance, said: ‘The game we must play at Stamford Bridge is a very important game. We must close the gap to two points. I hope we are going to recover and play the way we are playing so far. With the ball we didn’t have clear ideas.
‘Chelsea will be a very decisive game. We will try to win that game to close that gap again.
‘We didn’t play a good game. We ran a lot and had a lot of possession but we didn’t have creative ideas to try and find the space against a team that defend very well.’
Arsenal were awarded a penalty when Nacho Monreal appeared to go down easily after a collision with Vincent Kompany leaving Cazorla to convert.
Pellegrini added: ‘I doubt it was a penalty but after the penalty we have enough time. I don’t remember just one save from Joe Hart. ‘We didn’t create many chances to score. We were not creative — we didn’t have the ideas to cause damage.
‘The movement of Kompany allows Monreal to dive. I am not saying it was a bad mistake of the referee.The penalty changed the game, but it was not the reason we lost.’ Arsenal were impressive and this was an important victory after wins for Southampton, Manchester United and Tottenham on Saturday.
And manager Arsene Wenger even claimed his team should have won by more goals.
‘After we scored the first goal we controlled it and looked dangerous,’ he said. ‘We have good solidarity and the regret is that we did not always take advantage of the situations we created because we could have scored more.’
Wenger admitted his team were fortunate to earn the penalty for Kompany’s foul.
The Arsenal chief added: ‘My initial reaction was penalty. Someone told me it was a bit fortunate, but it goes for both teams. The referee has to make a quick decision and I am in favour of some support for offsides and penalties.’ – Daily Mail
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