Manuel Pellegrini has denied Manchester City are a Jekyll and Hyde side despite last Saturday’s defeat at Stoke City being followed by a victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach that meant they topped their Champions League group.
Stoke’s 2-0 win was a particular concern because of its manner, as City’s defending was again unconvincing and Mark Hughes’s team might easily have doubled the margin of victory. This followed similarly dispiriting 4-1 defeats to Liverpool and Tottenham this season, yet City have also beaten Chelsea 3-0, Newcastle United 6-1, Bournemouth 5-1 and, in the Champions League, Sevilla 3-1.
Pellegrini, though, did not accept that City had a split personality, saying: “I hope not. Because I am disappointed about [those] three games during this season. Just three games. We have played 25 games this season so I don’t like to lose in that way but I hope that was the last one – not the last defeat because you can lose against everyone – but in that sense, yes.”
The Chilean does wish to eradicate the slipshod displays. “Yes we need to because we’re too ugly [in those]. You can lose against every team here in England but you can’t lose so ugly. It’s an important thing that we analyse why but I know exactly what to expect from this team every game.”
Pellegrini’s preferred style of victory, unsurprisingly, is to score as many goals as possible while keeping a clean sheet. Asked if this was because he likes his side to be an entertaining proposition, he said: “I like to play attacking football, I like to score a lot of goals, but I prefer to win 4-0 rather than 4-2. That’s why I think that if we are conceding goals it’s not because we are playing attacking football, because if you see the goals you must analyse every goal we conceded. Maybe the two goals of Borussia, we had seven or eight players near our box [so we had enough numbers].
“I like to play attractive football, I like that the fans enjoy the game, I think that is the best way to win titles.”
Sergio Agüero faces a battle to be fit for City’s trip to Arsenal on 21 December. The striker is still suffering from the effects of a kick on a heel he suffered in the victory over Southampton on 28 November and is definitely out of Swansea City’s visit to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
“I hope he will start working with the squad Tuesday or Wednesday,” said Pellegrini. “We play on Monday against Arsenal so we hope he will be fit for that game. Agüero is improving but he will not be ready for this weekend.”
Vincent Kompany’s calf injury means he misses Swansea’s visit and is also a doubt for Arsenal. “We’ll see because it’s not the same injury [as Agüero] – one is a muscle injury, the other is just a pain in his heel,” said the manager.
“It’s difficult for a player just to work three days and to be ready to play. It’s one thing for a player to be fit after his injury and the other one is to be ready to play. That’s a very important difference that we will see during the week but I think we have just a few days.”
