Watford and Leicester no longer a surprise in ‘special’ Premier League season

Pellegrini said his squad can enjoy the festivities. We hope that this must be a moment of his career.

“I am not a doctor, but with a muscle injury, it will be very hard for him to be back in less than four weeks”. Maybe the other teams have a lot of money to bring in good players and all the squads have important players, that’s why the difference is not so big. We are three points behind the leaders and I hope we can be very good in the second half of the season.

He said: “Yes of course we are in a good position”.

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri has underscored the unpredictable nature of the English Premier League this soccer season, stating that it seemed as if “nobody wants to win the league”. “All of them must celebrate New Year’s Eve but I think they can do it early – maximum one o’clock”, he said. “It doesn’t matter who it is”.

The Argentinian played for 62 minutes in Manchester City’s defeat to Arsenal and 63 in their draw at Leicester on his return from a heel injury.

Pellegrini insists that while he is concerned with City’s away record, he is not unhappy with the level of performances in their last two games against Leicester City and Arsenal.

Now siitng at the ninth spot, Watford have eight wins, five draws and six losses.

“I don’t think it’s psychological”.

“For the next game against Watford, we have practically the complete squad so we’ll see if we are going to make changes”. We played very well against Sunderland and also against Leicester. I think we are in the correct way’. “It is very nice, we want more and are ambitious and have a strong mentality in the dressing room”. As for ourselves, I feel we are in a good position.

“We didn’t win against Arsenal, but I think we didn’t play a bad game”. A continuation of that form away from the Etihad Stadium would be insufficient for third-placed City to regain the title they surrendered to Chelsea last season.

“But we have lots of reasons to be happy”. The team has grown in stature, is more mature, more reliable and we won the FA Cup and the Community Shield.

Flores described his side as being “competitive” and having a “good connection with the fans”, who are rightly happy with their team.