Man City did not deserve to beat Swansea – Pellegrini

Manuel Pellegrini believes Manchester City showed the spirit needed to maintain their Premiership title challenge after a 2-1 win over Swansea.

Manchester United have achieved the feat twice in the Premier League era (in 1996-97 and 1998-99) and are the last club to lift the title with less than 80 points.

However, Pellegrini’s men – who were coming off a 4-2 Champions League success against Borussia Monchengladbach in midweek that saw them top Group D – took the three points courtesy of a huge slice of luck in the second minute of stoppage time.

Playing their first match since the departure of Garry Monk, the manager who left on Wednesday after a miserable run of form in which they had claimed just one win in 11 league matches, Swansea produced a battling performance worthy of at least a point.

But he was adamant that his team can climb the table, with the Swans a point above the relegation zone and poised to appoint a new manager before their home game against West Ham on 20 December.

“Swansea played very well and it’s not the way we want to win”. Given that Swansea only went behind through deserting their defensive duties at a first-half corner, City were about as unconvincing as it is possible to be without actually dropping points, though in the short time that remained after Bafetimbi Gomis had levelled, Toure managed to save the day.

“We were excellent”, caretaker manager Alan Curtis said.

But after Swansea captain Ashley Williams had diverted a Jesus Navas shot over the bar, Wilfried Bony put the hosts in front in the 26th minute, meeting Navas’s left-wing corner with an emphatic near-post header.

The 32-year-old Manchester City of England midfielder is now the the third player, after Nigerian living legends, Nwankwo Kanu and Jay-Jay Okocha, to receive the honour twice.

In the 95th minute, Hart made a save from another Sigurdsson shot and that was enough to win all three points for Manchester City from a nervy game for the home side.

Man City V Swansea – view commentary, squad, and statistics of the game live.

The Manchester City boss has revealed he would rather win the Premier League than the biggest prize in club football. “You don’t have that in every Premier League season”, he said.

Gylfi Sigurdsson thought he had equalised in the 84th minute, but his driven effort was contentiously ruled out as Gomis, on as a substitute, had collided with City goalkeeper Joe Hart a split-second earlier.

Sunday’s slate of Premier League fixtures if chock full of title and top-four implications, with three sides – Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool – harboring dreams of the top-four, or higher, in action. But we see his qualities on a regular basis in training.