Manuel Pellegrini’s hopes of seeing out his Manchester City reign this season in a blaze of glory were boosted as the masterful Sergio Aguero delivered again in an unconvincing 1-0 win at struggling Sunderland.
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Joe Hart made it clear that no amount of hoopla over the appointment of Pep Guardiola was going to sidetrack Manchester City’s title bid after they ground out a resilient victory to mark Manuel Pellegrini’s 100th Premier League match on Tuesday.
City had to scrap until the end to eke out three points, and it could prove crucial, said Hart: “It was a tough game on a minging night”.
Things were not always pretty but the manager, who had picked Kelechi Iheanacho to start up front alongside Sergio Aguero following his weekend hat-trick, recognised the problem and withdrew the youngster at half-time to bring on Fernando.
“They have already enjoyed two 4-1 wins over Sunderland this season – but Sam Allardyce has been busy in the market and his team should provide more spirited resistance than Villa managed in the FA Cup”.
“We have got to pay particular attention to him and try to nullify those strengths as much as we can on Tuesday because he can turn the game in a split-second”.
However, Arsenal drew 0-0 with Southampton, meaning that the Gunners – who were level on points with City – are now two points behind.
“A result like that settles the nerves of the fans, the players, even the manager”, Lingard said.
“I think the squad also felt a little bit the three games, so it was intelligent to do it that way and for that you have to be very concentrated and show character and we did it”.
“I am pleased about that and it means we are doing good work, we are attractive, and play good football”.
Few thought a team that only narrowly avoided relegation last season could keep up its challenge at the other end of the standings, but the Foxes are proving everyone wrong.
“It was very important to win, especially here at the Stadium of Light, it’s not a stadium where we have good results”, Pellegrini said afterwards.
“We have however many games left and are in all competitions”.
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“To play as well as we did against City and get nothing, I’m gutted”. “Well if we want to defend, we can defend with eight players near our box as we did tonight”.
