Manchester City’s Pellegrini seeks consistency for title push

REUTERS – Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini is demanding his side start stringing together wins as they did at the start of the season after poor away form and erratic performances have left them without consecutive league victories since October.

Despite picking up just 15 points from 10 games, the poorest away record in the top eight, Manchester City sit just one point behind Arsenal and Leicester at the top of the standings following a 4-0 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday.

“If we can do it, it will be very important to do it now but it doesn’t matter if you win eight games and after that don’t continue with a high level of performance,” Pellegrini told British media.

“It’s more important to be a solid and consistent team. I think we’re in a good moment and I hope we can do it (go on a run) again this year. It’s also very important to recover our top players in their best performance.”

The Citizens have missed Sergio Aguero, David Silva and captain Vincent Kompany through injury for much of the season, and Pellegrini said his side had coped well in the absence of the key trio.

Aguero has been back among the goals in recent weeks, having netted four times in his last five appearances in all competitions.

“It’s impossible to replace Kun (Aguero). I think for every team to replace their top players is very difficult,” the former Real Madrid manager said.

“We can play without Kun, David and Vincent because we are still involved in all the competitions despite the three of them playing relatively few games this season.”

City travel to sixth-placed West Ham United for a league match on Saturday.

(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by John O’Brien)