Manchester City might not have managed to reduce the points’ margin between them and their title challengers Chelsea the other day at Stamford Bridge, but, Manuel Pellegrini walked out of the arena with his head held high.
The Sky Blues boss was all praise for his boys for their performance in that game which was sort of must win for the reigning champions. Now, with only fifteen matches to go, it’s still possible for City to be able to reach the top of the table, but they have to hope Chelsea slip up.
Chelsea just has to play one tough away match now and that is versus Arsenal. The rest are relatively easy. Yes, at Stamford Bridge they have to face a couple of strong opponents, but, they have been untroubled in front of the home crowd for most parts of the season. So, they should be fine in those matches – and their current Premier League odds of 1/5 reflect that!
In the game versus City, Chelsea, quite clearly, adopted a defensive style of play, but that was fair enough if you try to see from their point of view – they did not need a win, and a draw would keep them 5 points clear.
City, on the other hand, were firing on all cylinders as they had to, though it was all in vain as the result was a draw.
Pellegrini was disappointed not to have made the opportunity count, but, he looked happy with the fact that the effort was made. He refused to pass on any comment on Chelsea’s tactics though.
When asked about Chelsea focusing more on defence, the Chilean manager said, “That’s on you to analyse how they played. I would not talk about it. As far as we are concerned, we were there to win and we tried our hardest.”
