adminMan City 4-0 Aston Villa
Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini “expects” his side to seal the Premier League title on Sunday and says they have done it playing the right way.
City’s 4-0 win over Aston Villa effectively means a point against West Ham on the final day will secure their second crown in three seasons.
“Winning the title is very important but so is the way we are going to win it,” Pellegrini said.
“There are many ways to win it but I choose this one – attractive football.”
City had been top of the table for only 11 days of a campaign lasting eight months before returning to the summit with their convincing win over Villa, which saw them score their 100th league goal of the campaign.
Any victory for Pellegrini’s men against a Hammers side who they have already beaten three times this season, scoring 12 goals in the process, will make certain they finish as champions.
Even if they draw, City have a vastly superior goal difference over Liverpool, which means the Reds would need to beat Newcastle by 13 goals in their final fixture to overtake them. City have suffered last-day drama before, famously clinching the title through Sergio Aguero’s injury-time winner against QPR in 2012.
But Pellegrini is not contemplating a tense finish this time, stating for the first time that he is confident of getting his hands on the Premier League trophy, to go with the Capital One Cup won in February.
“Of course I expect to win the title now,” he said. “It is the last game and we know if we win the last game we will win the title.
“It has been a strange season because we have never been at the top of the table. Everybody was talking about us being the favourites but in March we were nine points behind Liverpool and eight behind Chelsea. We had three games in hand but we had to win all of those games.
“Now we are top and I hope we are not going to lose on Sunday, but we must play the way we have played against Villa, and the way we have played all season.”
Pellegrini praised his players for the character they have shown to put themselves in touching distance of the title and is proud that they have done it by playing attacking football.
“We have a style of play which makes us an attractive team,” he explained. “We score many goals and we always think we can score more. That for me has the same importance as winning the title, and I am very happy to win the title playing that way.
“We got some criticism at the start of the season when we lost two or three away games but we have shown a lot of character and personality to carry on playing the way we believe in, which is the best way to win.
“It is difficult to find just one key moment in the season. The most important thing is that this team has always believed we can win the title.” — BBC Sport
Online Reporter