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MANCHESTER. — Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini believes his side have the mental strength to win matches even when they are not at their stylish best during the end-of-season run-in. City have plundered 69 goals in 26 league matches this season but, after failing to find the net in successive games, they scrapped to a 1-0 victory at home to Stoke City on Saturday.

It was enough to keep them three points behind leaders Chelsea with a game in hand and a superior goal difference.
Goals were not an issue for Pellegrini in the first half of the campaign, but the Chilean is confident his side can cope against teams who look to shut them out.

“The satisfaction is the same because we have three points more on the table and the second round is not the same as the first round,” he said.
“Teams come here to try to draw with the whole team defending, so we can’t win by three or four every match. We must try to find more space in the defence, but it’s important to know how to win both ways, to have a clean sheet and have the patience to score at least one.

“The other team was behind the ball in the other box, but we had the patience for the 90 minutes and finally we scored and we had the concentration, especially at set-pieces and second balls, to keep our clean sheet.” — AFP.