Manchester City know failure to win at Stoke City on Wednesday will leave their quest to join Manchester United and Chelsea as the only clubs to have retained the Premier League title in near tatters.
This was the frank admittance from Manuel Pellegrini following a dull display which required a late intervention from James Milner to snatch a point against Hull City. The manager’s verdict was echoed by his players: the defending champions are in no man’s land already with Chelsea’s lead now seven points and cannot afford more days like this.
As José Mourinho’s side finally put away what had been a bogey fixture at Aston Villa, Milner waited until the 92nd minute to fire a 20-yard free-kick past Allan McGregor and cancel out David Meyler’s first-half opener. A sombre Pellegrini admitted anything less than three points at Stoke could be fatal.
“With as many points as we have dropped it will be more difficult, but this time we hope we are going to win against Stoke,” he said. “This season I think we have played better away than we have done at home, because we have dropped too many points here at home. So I hope that at Stoke we can score and start winning again.”
Samir Nasri was as clear. “We have to wake up and do the job now before it’s too late,” the Frenchman said. “Chelsea, with no disrespect, are not Liverpool – who can drop points. They are really solid. We have to catch them as soon as possible if we want to be champions. It will be tough at Stoke, it’s not ideal at 7.45pm on a Wednesday during the winter but we have to win it – catch up the points we have lost.”
Fourteen league matches remain and Milner believes City have to win virtually all. “We have got to be pretty faultless between now and the end of the season to get close,” he said. “We know, more than anyone, you have to keep going to the death and anything can happen.”
Pellegrini’s assessment of City’s home form is correct though the contrast with their away form is not all that stark. At the Etihad there have been seven wins, three draws and two defeats. On the road, seven victories, four draws and a single loss.
Before kick-off, the Chilean had talked up last week’s postive display in a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge as a turning point. Yet it now seems February is continuing a dire January in which only one league victory was claimed, the 3-2 win over Sunderland on New Year’s Day, and the club was knocked out of the FA Cup by Middlesbrough.
Pellegrini said: “We were a very good team against Chelsea and played well, but we didn’t create enough chances. We are not creating space against teams who defend with eight or nine players.
“I’m not criticising them [the opposition]. We have to try to find a solution in changing our style or trying to do different things.”
At the same juncture last season City had 53 points, four better than today, and 68 goals, 21 more than now. Yaya Touré and the new £26m signing, Wilfried Bony, should help but they will not be available for Stoke because of Ivory Coast’s Africa Cup of Nations final against Ghana .
“They play on Sunday, they must return here on Monday, it’s not easy for them to just come, arrive and play so many games in just a few days,” Pelegrini said. “I don’t think this problem is a problem of one name. This is a team with great players and at the moment we must try to find which ones of them can help resolve the problem.”
For Steve Bruce’s Hull this fine draw ended a run of four straight defeats. “Sometimes people respond to a bollocking and sometimes people respond to an arm around the shoulder and being reassured that they’re good players,” the manager said. “You can’t keep hitting people with sticks all the time because eventually they get tired of it and down tools. However, I think they all realise that last week they were nowhere near where they should be and they’re honest enough to accept that,” he said of the 3-0 capitulation at Newcastle United. “We brought a few players back today – [Paul] McShane and Alex [Bruce] in particular alongside [Michael] Dawson were all terrific.”
Man of the match David Meyler (Hull City)
