Mancini refuses to concede title to Man Utd

Roberto Mancini has refused to concede the title to Manchester United opening up an eight-point lead following Arsenal 1-0 win over Manchester City on Sunday.

City's hopes of a first English title in 44 years were all but extinguished with six games left after their defeat at Emirates Stadium.

Before kick-off Mancini said City had to beat Arsenal to maintain their title challenge, telling Sky Sports: "Today for us is like a final, otherwise eight points is too much.

Afterwards Mancini, asked if City's title bid was over, replied: "No, it's not mathematically (over), but it's clear now that it's very difficult.

"We have a game in three days (at home to West Brom on Wednesday) and we will try to win. Never say never in football.

He added: "In life until it's over you should do your best. In the end if we don't win it's probably because they (United) did better than us.

"It's clearly difficult (to lift the players) but we play in three days and this is good. We are a professional team, with professional players. It's important we start to win and finish the championship well."

Mancini's own position will now be examined, but the manager insisted he should be given more time by City's wealthy Abu Dhabi based-owner.

"Sure, 100 percent," he said when asked if he was the right man for the job.

"When I arrived, City were seventh or eighth. After six months, we were fighting for the Champions League and lost to Tottenham one game from the end.
 
"Second year, we were second and won the FA Cup. Today (Sunday), we have 15 points more than last year.

"When you start a project it's important you improve. You work hard. This is a difficult situation because we thought we could win the title. We were there for 28 games. But we need to improve. We need more experience and to change something. We've only worked here for two years."
 

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.