{"id":16571,"date":"2011-12-19T08:19:33","date_gmt":"2011-12-19T08:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/12\/home-games-give-city-title-edge-mancini\/"},"modified":"2011-12-19T08:19:33","modified_gmt":"2011-12-19T08:19:33","slug":"home-games-give-city-title-edge-mancini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/19\/home-games-give-city-title-edge-mancini\/","title":{"rendered":"Home games give City title edge &#8211; Mancini"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"32\">\n<p>Mancini happy with &#8216;important&#8217; win<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini thinks his team are in a strong position to win the Premier League title &#8211; because they have already played their close rivals away.<\/p>\n<p>City have won all eight of their matches at Etihad Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>And Mancini said: &#8220;We <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/sport1\/hi\/football\/14606056.stm\">played at Tottenham<\/a>, we played <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/sport1\/hi\/football\/15325536.stm\">against United away<\/a>, we played <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/sport1\/hi\/football\/16117291.stm\">against Chelsea away<\/a>, we played against <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/sport1\/hi\/football\/15809406.stm\">Liverpool away<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At home it won&#8217;t be easy but it will be better for us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<h2>City&#8217;s Premier League results at home 2011-12<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>18 Dec:<\/strong> 1-0 v Arsenal<\/li>\n<li><strong>3 Dec:<\/strong> 5-1 v Norwich<\/li>\n<li><strong>19 Nov:<\/strong> 3-1 v Newcastle<\/li>\n<li><strong>29 Oct:<\/strong> 3-1 v Wolves<\/li>\n<li><strong>15 Oct:<\/strong> 4-1 v Aston Villa<\/li>\n<li><strong>24 Sep:<\/strong> 2-0 v Everton<\/li>\n<li><strong>10 Sep:<\/strong> 3-0 v Wigan<\/li>\n<li><strong>15 Aug:<\/strong> 4-0 v Swansea<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Mancini&#8217;s team have scored 25 goals in eight Premier League matches at Etihad.<\/p>\n<p>And he added: &#8220;In the next two months United have to play Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal away &#8211; and City. This is important.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But we know United are a really strong team. We can&#8217;t think we can win the title without fighting against United. This is impossible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mancini was pleased to see his team bounce back from their first defeat of the season <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/sport2\/hi\/football\/16129455.stm\" title=\"Man City 1-0 Arsenal\">to beat Arsenal 1-0<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>City <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/sport1\/hi\/football\/16117291.stm\">lost to Chelsea on Monday<\/a>, and slipped to second in the Premier League table after Manchester United beat QPR.<\/p>\n<p>But, thanks to David Silva&#8217;s second-half goal, Mancini&#8217;s side restored their two-point cushion at the top.<\/p>\n<p>Mancini added: &#8220;It was important [to hit back], because United are having a good season like Manchester City.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are strong, they are strong, but we know that the season is long.<\/p>\n<div readability=\"32\">\n<p>Wenger queries offside decisions<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;It could be in the season that we could go into second position but we know that it&#8217;s important to stay on top in the end.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In an entertaining game, City could have made it easier for themselves if Sergio Aguero had taken an early chance. They also hit the post through Pablo Zabaleta.<\/p>\n<p>But the hosts were thankful for a fine performance by keeper Joe Hart, who made saves from Robin van Persie, Thomas Vermaelen and Theo Walcott.<\/p>\n<p>Van Persie also had a goal disallowed for offside.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal&#8217;s loss was their first in nine games and leaves them 12 points off Manchester City at the top of the table.<\/p>\n<p>Gunners boss Arsene Wenger said it would now be very difficult to win the title, but said they &#8220;will try&#8221;.<\/p>\n<div>\n<h2>Top of the Premier League<\/h2>\n<table>\n<colgroup>\n<col width=\"25%\" \/>\n<col width=\"25%\" \/>\n<col width=\"25%\" \/>\n<col width=\"25%\" \/><\/colgroup>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th><\/th>\n<th>Pld<\/th>\n<th>Won<\/th>\n<th>Pts<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tfoot readability=\"1\">\n<tr readability=\"3\">\n<td colspan=\"4\" readability=\"5\">\n<p>* Correct at 19 December 2011<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tfoot>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Man City<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>16<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>13<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>41<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Man Utd<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>16<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>12<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>39<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Spurs<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>15<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>11<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>34<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Chelsea<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>16<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>10<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>32<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>16<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>29<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Liverpool<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>16<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>29<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/sport1\/hi\/football\/eng_prem\/table\/default.stm\">Full Premier League table<\/a><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;This was a game we couldn&#8217;t afford to lose,&#8221; Wenger said. &#8220;It&#8217;s difficult to take but we will continue to fight.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Wenger said they were caught out in defence once temporary right-back <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/sport1\/hi\/football\/16237583.stm\">Johan Djourou was taken off<\/a> prior to the goal.<\/p>\n<p>His injury adds to the problems in defence which led to them starting the game with four centre-backs and, when he went off just after half-time, Laurent Koscielny was forced to fill in at full-back, with City subsequently exploiting a clear gap down Arsenal&#8217;s right.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We suffered from the fact that we had to completely reshuffle our defence. We are too short on full-back positions at the moment and we cannot bring another one [onto the field],&#8221; Wenger said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Overall we had a good performance, we gave absolutely everything and we were unlucky as well because we had the chances. The offside decisions [for our goal and David Silva&#8217;s goal] are not completely convincing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The game could have finished 1-1, 2-0 for them or 1-0 for us. We know we are close to [City] and you have seen that today.&#8221;<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Mancini happy with &#8216;important&#8217; win Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini thinks his team are in a strong position to win the Premier League title &#8211; because they have already played their close rivals away. City have won all eight of their matches at Etihad Stadium. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Home games give City title edge - Mancini - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/19\/home-games-give-city-title-edge-mancini\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Home games give City title edge - Mancini - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Mancini happy with &#039;important&#039; win Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini thinks his team are in a strong position to win the Premier League title - because they have already played their close rivals away. 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