English Premier League: We are not thinking about the title, says Pellegrini

Manager warns City not to rest on laurels after sweeping past Spurs.

LONDON: Manuel Pellegrini has warned Manchester City’s stars not to be distracted by dreams of Premier League glory after they swept to the top of the table with a 5-1 demolition of 10-man Tottenham.

City tore Tottenham to shreds in ruthless fashion despite losing Argentina striker Sergio Aguero to a suspected hamstring injury just before half-time.

Aguero had already opened the scoring and Yaya Toure’s controversial penalty, awarded after a challenge, which led to Tottenham’s Danny Rose being dismissed, was followed by further strikes from Edin Dzeko, Stevan Jovetic and Vincent Kompany.

But Pellegrini knows there is still a long way to go before the destination of the title is decided and the Chilean is determined to keep his players’ feet on the ground.

“We are not thinking about the title,” said Pellegrini. “It’s always very important to be on top, but we have to play 15 more games.

“It depends what we do in every match, we have to fight for 45 more points. We don’t have such a big advantage that we can think the Premier League is finished. Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool also have chances of fighting for the title.”

Mourinho fumes at ‘19th-century’ West Ham

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho angrily accused West Ham United of playing ‘football from the nineteenth century’ after they secured a hard-fought 0-0 draw against his side.

Chelsea dominated a one-sided game at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday, but were unable to find a way through the obdurate defence of Sam Allarydce’s West Ham.

“It’s very difficult to play a football match where only one team wants to play,” said Mourinho.

“Very difficult, a match is about two teams playing. This match was only one team playing, and another team not.

“But at the same time, this is not Premier League. This is not the best league in the world. This is football from the nineteenth century.

Asked what he meant by ‘nineteenth-century football’, Mourinho said, “Pretending injuries, cheating, ten defenders in the box, defenders not putting a foot outside the box, very basic. But I’m nobody to criticise. They are happy. They get a point.”

Allardyce laughed off the criticism after a result that left his side two points from safety in the relegation zone.

“Jose can’t take it, can he?” said the West Ham manager. “He can’t take it because we’ve ‘out-tacticked’ him, outwitted him. He just can’t cope. He can tell me all he wants. I don’t care, to be honest.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st,  2014.

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