Manuel Pellegrini has declared City never play for a draw and is hoping a derby win over United can give his side an extra boost , so that City fan finish the season strongly.
Manchester United have won five successive Premier League games to climb above City in the league table for the first time this season and Pellegrini declared that Uniteda s recent form is no surprise to him, given the quality signings they made in the summer.
a Ia m not impressed because Louis van Gaala s teams are offensive teams who try to win titles,a he asserted.
a United bought a lot of very good players in the summer a Di Maria, Herrera, Falcao, Mata the season before a and Blind.”
a They bought a lot of very good players a the strange thing was why they werena t doing it before but ita s no surprise [theya re doing well now].”
a I dona t like to compare a always when you make these comparisons, there are a lot of things you dona t analyse.”
a City have a project, United dominated for so many years. These last few years City have had a project and have spent money to sign players which is the only way to equalise the squads Liverpool, United, Chelsea and Arsenal have had.”
a Our target is to improve in our project and thata s how we work every day.”
a I think that United have a lot of respect for our team as we dominated not only the derby in the last few years but also the Premier League.a
Pellegrini refused to look beyond Sundaya s game and the City boss refused to answer when journalists asked him whether he still believes his side can win the title.
“Instead, the City boss preferred to concentrate on the derby and to fix what he sees as the teama s biggest current problem: scoring goals.”
a All that is in my mind is just to think about winning the next game you play and that is the derby against United,a he added.
a Never is a draw a good result. I understand we are not having the away results we want. 2015 is not a good year for us for this but the motivation is to win, always.”
a Ita s difficult to have a more intense match than you have in the Premier League every match but ita s more when ita s a derby in a city.”
a It gives the game an extra boost a I hope not only the intensity is high but the quality.”
“Both managers like attacking systems so I hope fans can enjoy the game and I hope we can do it for our fans.a
The City boss also confirmed Ivorian Wilfred Bony will be unavailable for the clash against United with club captain Vincent Kompany also a major doubt for Sunday’s showdown.
Dedryck Boyata and Stevan Jovetic are also injury concerns for Manuel Pellegrini.
“Stevan Jovetic has a muscle injury,a he told journalists.
a Bony twisted his ankle and knee before Palace and he wona t be ready for this game.
a Boyata has a problem with his knee. Kompany will be assessed tomorrow. He could finish the game the other day but he couldna t in work the normal way all week.”
a Wea ll see tomorrow if he can play or not. I always say the same, ita s always better with Kompany but if he cana t play, we have a squad and we will replace him.a