Having seen his team tamely concede defeat against Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals on Wednesday, it threatens to be a miserable end to Pellegrini’s three-year tenure, which has yielded the 2013-14 Premier League title and two League Cups.
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Nevertheless, the forward’s return to form comes at a vital time for the Gunners, who can guarantee their place in the UEFA Champions League with a draw at home to Aston Villa on the final day and could even leapfrog rivals Tottenham Hotspur into second should they win and Spurs lose to Newcastle United.
“Man City had made a decision to give a big present to Manuel Pellegrini, they were all on fire and we needed to show special fighting spirit to come away with a point”.
“I am proud of winning the titles, also I am proud of our style of play”.
Pellegrini said: “If we make a summary of the three seasons I was in charge here, we were the team that had more points, w e were the team that had better performances as a manager, we were the team that in the three seasons we always scored the most goals”.
In the entertaining Etihad game, witnessed by over 54,000 people, Sergio Aguero opened the scoring, netting for the sixth straight league match in the eighth minute, but Olivier Giroud’s first goal in 16 top-flight appearances restored parity two minutes later.
The Chilean said City deserved to win the game and, while the result hands Manchester United the upper hand in the race for top four, he is happy with the way his side played.
“I am not disappointed because twice we were losing and twice we came back”, said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. Of course if you don’t just depend on you it is more hard but we’ll see what happens on Tuesday when Manchester United play West Ham.
But when asked at his final pre-match press conference on Thursday how he felt about his time at the club, the 62-year-old spoke proudly about his achievements. We are not finished this season.
“Overall, we have the best results against the top four teams”.
Arsenal, with Mesut Ozil not involved due to a hip injury, offered little by way of attacking threat, and at the half-time whistle had managed just one effort on goal. “We need to change that mentality, to be strong, to be a big club”.
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However poor Pellegrini’s reception was in his farewell speech, the perception of his tenure might become a whole lot worse if City fail to qualify for the Champions League this year just as Pep Guardiola arrives. This was Pelligrini’s last home game as Man City manager.
