adminAguero came off the bench to score a magnificent solo goal in the 78th minute in a 2-1 win that trims Manchester United’s lead over City to 12 points with seven games to go.
Despite the win at Old Trafford, Mancini — whose men won the title from eight points back with six to play a year ago — maintained the title race is over, but said City can be crowned champions again in 2013-14 and will never trail United by such a huge margin again.
When asked if the result could affect United’s confidence ahead of their final seven games, Mancini said: “United? No. The championship is finished. But we deserved to win because we played better, we played good football. We didn’t take any risk.”
Mancini feels City proved with their defeat of United they are capable of challenging for title glory again next season.
Mancini said: “We need to continue to play like this for next season. We have two or three months where we can work well, where we can improve our team. I think we showed we can’t be 15 points behind.
“But we can say United won a lot of games. They lost their last game against Norwich a long time ago and they deserve to win this title, for sure.”
“We know that we can win the title next year,” said Mancini. “This year we did some mistakes but now we can do nothing — the season is gone.
“For next season, we have two or three months where we can work to improve our team. I think we showed that we should not have been 15 points behind United.
“They lost their last game, against Norwich, back in November and so they deserve to win this title.
“This season, we had some important players injured, like Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and Yaya Toure. We are not a team that can lose three or four important players like this.”
The only downside for City was a hamstring injury to David Silva, which looks to have ruled him out of Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea at Wembley.
Mancini added: “Maybe it’s not so bad, but I don’t think he’ll be ready for Chelsea.”
Sir Alex Ferguson claimed that Manchester United were merely reverting to type by losing at Old Trafford. Whilst victory would have taken them to the brink of a record 20th league title, a loss means they will have to wait at least a couple of weeks for confirmation of their status as English Premier League champions.
“If you look at the history of our club, we always make it difficult for ourselves,” said Ferguson. “We have our supporters hanging on the edge of their seats every year. We have a 12-point lead but we won’t be taking anything for granted. The plus point is that we only have seven games left now. As each game goes along you whittle them down.
“We have Stoke on Sunday. The support will be great and we will have a go. We have to kick on now.”
The United boss did feel Carlos Tevez was interfering with play from an off-side position when man-of-the-match Milner drove City in front. However, Ferguson felt he had a contender for the game’s best player in Jones, who was outstanding in central defence.
“Phil was magnificent,” he said. “He has only played two games at centre-back this season. That tells you what a good player he is. The boy could be anything. At 21 he is a man.
“The first goal? Certainly Tevez is interfering with play, but the linesman on that side, no way was he giving it. But it’s disappointing because he’s clearly in the road of the goalkeeper – if that’s not interference then I don’t know what is.” Ferguson also hailed Robin van Persie’s “absolutely fantastic” performance in Monday night’s defeat despite the striker extending his scoreless streak to 10 games.
The Netherlands international helped provide the assist for United’s equaliser with an in-swinging free-kick, although he was once again profligate in front of goal as he again failed to find the back of the net.
But Ferguson was quick to praise the former Arsenal striker’s contribution and is sure that the Red Devils are still on course in their pursuit of the Premier League title, despite Aguero’s winning goal cutting the gap to 12 points with seven games to go.
“There were a lot of plus points for us,” Ferguson told Sky Sports following the match. “The evidence is clear that our form is good, I’ve no complaints about that. I thought Van Persie was absolutely fantastic today. I brought Wayne Rooney back — he almost played 90 minutes. That’ll bring him on again, because he’s missed a couple of games.”
James Milner put City ahead in the 51st minute before a Vincent Kompany own goal allowed United to level seven minutes later.
But a superb solo goal from Aguero in the 78th minute gave City victory. United need only 10 points from their remaining seven games to clinch a 20th title triumph and manager Ferguson insisted there would be no panic, despite his side having won just two of their last six games.
“You don’t want to lose a derby, but we’re okay,” said Ferguson. “They [his players] won’t be taking anything for granted, don’t worry about that.
“But if you look at the history of our club, we have always made it difficult for ourselves and put our supporters through it, hanging on the edge of their seats every year.
We have a 12-point lead and the plus point is that there are only seven games now. You whittle them off, we have Stoke on Sunday and we’ll have a go. In the second half, I thought we were the better team and were unfortunate to lose it. We must look at ourselves in terms of the goals we lost, but Aguero is a terrific finisher and they brought him on for that.”
City skipper Kompany said: “A derby is always a special game for us and to win this game is massive.
“I do believe the way we finish this season is going to have an impact on next season and this is a good game to have under our belts to take into next season.” — The Mirror.
Online Reporter