But with Manchester United now level on points, West Ham a point behind and Liverpool only six adrift, Pellegrini knows his players have to rouse themselves from their Premier League slump.
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Liverpool succumbed to a shoot-out loss against City at Wembley, but completely outplayed them at Anfield on Wednesday, underlining their dominance with goals from Adam Lallana, James Milner and Roberto Firmino.
The Reds could also qualify for Europe’s top competition if they win the Europa League with a last 16 tie with Manchester United coming up.
Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City sit pretty at the Premier League summit after their closest rivals Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Manchester City remarkably all contrived to lose on Wednesday.
“We’ve just got to take it a game at a time and nearly ignore the table for the time being”. But now we need to see what we can do with him.
When asked if Liverpool can still qualify, the former City midfielder said: “If we keep playing like that there is no reason why not”.
Milner didn’t rule out Champions League qualification, saying if the team can continue the form it showed in its latest match “there is no reason why not”. The Reds enjoyed far more possession as the first half progressed but City’s defence, led be the ever-impressive Vincent Kompany, refused to be cowed. We didn’t deserve to be 2-0 down because Liverpool didn’t have many chances until they scored the first goal.
City beat Liverpool in the League Cup final on Sunday but there was to be no repeat for Manuel Pellegrini’s side as Liverpool’s superior commitment and possession paid off on a bitterly cold night on Merseyside.
Klopp is hoping the victory gives Liverpool an extra boost as the end of the season appears on the horizon and he was full of compliments for his side.
“The best word I can say to describe this was ‘boom!’ Klopp said after the match”. We spoke about the final after the game.
“The boys did brilliant”. “They were very angry – angry in a positive way”. That view was also expressed by Vincent Kompany, who while recognising that he and his team-mates had underperformed at Anfield thinks there is still enough time in this most unpredictable of Premier League seasons for them to put things right.
“From the beginning we were not fresh”, said Pellegrini, who only changed two outfield players from Sunday.
That is the biggest thing we have shown in spells. “So we started extremely lively”.
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With the return of the second half, Man City were kept at bay by Liverpool as they kept firing blanks.
