{"id":397639,"date":"2011-04-25T22:29:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T22:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/04\/25\/we-are-aiming-for-at-least-fourth-%e2%80%93-nigel-de-jong-insists-manchester-city-can-still-finish-third-in-premier-league\/"},"modified":"2011-04-25T22:29:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-25T22:29:00","slug":"we-are-aiming-for-at-least-fourth-nigel-de-jong-insists-manchester-city-can-still-finish-third-in-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/25\/we-are-aiming-for-at-least-fourth-nigel-de-jong-insists-manchester-city-can-still-finish-third-in-premier-league\/","title":{"rendered":"We are aiming for at least fourth \u2013 Nigel De Jong insists Manchester City can still finish third in Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<h3>By Ryan Benson<\/h3>\n<h4>25 Apr 2011 23:29:00<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n<div readability=\"104.736360373\">\n<div readability=\"13.3571428571\">\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Nigel De Jong,Manchester City(Getty Images)\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/6c7a0861113843_news.jpg.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Nigel De Jong,Manchester City(Getty Images)<\/p>\n<h4>Related Links<\/h4>\n<h4>Teams<\/h4>\n<h4>Players<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<p><span id=\"divAdnetKeyword\"\/><\/p>\n<p><span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-gb\/teams\/england\/109\/manchester-city\">Manchester City<\/a> midfielder <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-gb\/people\/netherlands\/4138\/nigel-de-jong\">Nigel De Jong<\/a> has issued a warning to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-gb\/teams\/england\/94\/arsenal\">Arsenal<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-gb\/teams\/england\/105\/tottenham\">Tottenham<\/a>, declaring that a fourth-placed finish is the very least they expect from this season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>De Jong was in confident mood on Monday night after City\u2019s 1-0 win against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park, a result that moved them four points ahead of fifth-placed Tottenham thanks to Edin Dzeko\u2019s first Premier League goal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The former-Hamburg man stressed the importance of the win in context with the results of teams around them, namely Spurs\u2019 disappointing 2-2 draw with West Brom on Saturday, as well as Arsenal\u2019s last minute loss at Bolton on Sunday, believing third place is still a possibility.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cOf course we have to aim for the highest position and a lot of rivals dropped points at the weekend and the only thing we can do is focus for the last couple of games and try and get three points every time we go out,&#8221; he told <em>Sky Sports<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;The most important game of the weekend for us and we have to remain focused and you never know we could get third but at least fourth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The match was far from easy for City as Blackburn spent much of the second half on top, but were wasteful. However, City defended well when needed, with De Jong in particular acting as an effective shield.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt was a little bit shaky in the second half,&#8221; De Jong added. &#8220;I think they came out much stronger and luckily we had the big-man Edin Dzeko to score his first goal in the Premier League, so from our point of view it\u2019s a welcome three points and we just have focus on the next game.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cEverybody knows their position in the team and the hard work pays off. We have a lot of quality in the team and you always need a couple of hard workers, it\u2019s not only me.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cYou could see the back four today, we kept a clean sheet today and it\u2019s not only because of me. We have to give credit to the whole team.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Dzeko&#8217;s goal was the Bosnian&#8217;s first strike in the Premier League, and while De Jong conceded it had been a difficult period for the January signing, he believes that the former Wolfsburg marksmen is improving.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt\u2019s been a tough couple of months for him Dzeko but he gets stronger and stronger each day and we\u2019re happy that he scored today that gave us three points,&#8221; he continued.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt\u2019s a collective thing, not an individual thing and we are just happy that we can progress to the end of the season and collect a very welcome three points.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/6c7a0861113843_news.jpg-150x150.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Continued here:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-gb\/news\/2896\/premier-league\/2011\/04\/25\/2458154\/we-are-aiming-for-at-least-fourth-nigel-de-jong-insists\" title=\"We are aiming for at least fourth \u2013 Nigel De Jong insists Manchester City can still finish third in Premier League\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">We are aiming for at least fourth \u2013 Nigel De Jong insists Manchester City can still finish third in Premier League<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> By Ryan Benson 25 Apr 2011 23:29:00 Nigel De Jong,Manchester City(Getty Images) Related Links Teams Players Manchester City midfielder Nigel De Jong has issued a warning to Arsenal and Tottenham , declaring that a fourth-placed finish is the very least they expect from this season. De Jong was in confident mood on Monday night after City\u2019s 1-0 win against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park, a result that moved them four points ahead of fifth-placed Tottenham thanks to Edin Dzeko\u2019s first Premier League goal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-397639","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>We are aiming for at least fourth \u2013 Nigel De Jong insists Manchester City can still finish third in Premier League - 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\/04\/25\/we-are-aiming-for-at-least-fourth-nigel-de-jong-insists-manchester-city-can-still-finish-third-in-premier-league\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"We are aiming for at least fourth \u2013 Nigel De Jong insists Manchester City can still finish third in Premier League - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"By Ryan Benson 25 Apr 2011 23:29:00 Nigel De Jong,Manchester City(Getty Images) Related Links Teams Players Manchester City midfielder Nigel De Jong has issued a warning to Arsenal and Tottenham , declaring that a fourth-placed finish is the very least they expect from this season. 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