City flew out of the blocks to win their opening five league matches without conceding a goal, threatening to turn the title race into a procession.
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“We showed good character”, said Wenger “When it was 1-1 we didn’t look like we could score but as soon as it was 2-1 we started again to have that desire and we looked risky straight away”. “But we are to blame”. With the mood deflated, a considerable majority of the 54,425 crowd had even left the stadium by the time Pellegrini and players re-emerged to address fans and conduct their traditional end-of-season lap of honour. We must keep our heads clean and chins up and try to win our last game. “Then we will see what happens”.
City failed to register a single shot on target in their meek 1-0 Champions League semi-final defeat at Real Madrid, but after a sprightly start they went ahead in the eighth minute.
“In the last match of the season we can pass over Manchester City, they can lose and we can win”.
“I’m disappointed but we’re still fighting”, said Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino, who was in charge at Southampton until moving to Tottenham in 2014.
Arsenal host Aston Villa in their final game, City travel to Swansea and United play Bournemouth at Old Trafford. It also raises the prospect that Pellegrini’s successor, Pep Guardiola, starting life at the club in the Europa League. After that we have to work well during the week and make sure we get the three points at Swansea. We suffered a little, but every time we went down we showed character and came back twice in the game.
“We have always been in the Champions League spots for 37 games, so I think we deserve to be there, and we played very well against Arsenal, so I think we deserve to qualify”.
English teams are awarded three berths in the Europa League.
After Walcott chipped wide after being played in on goal, Giroud teed up Sanchez on the edge of the area and the Chilean finished past Hart.
City need a favour off West Ham tonight.
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Wenger believes yesterday’s result proves his side’s ability to perform against the Premier League’s top sides, he said: “They are hard to beat and we have shown again that we can get results against top teams”.
