Source: http://ift.tt/eKERsB - Monday, April 06, 2015
London (AFP) - Manchester City's Premier League title defence is in tatters after a surprise 2-1 defeat at Crystal Palace left the champions nine points adrift of leaders Chelsea on Monday. Manuel Pellegrini's side were rocked as Glenn Murray's first half goal and Jason Puncheon's excellent free kick immediately after the restart gave Palace the cushion they needed to withstand late pressure after Yaya Toure had given City hope with a 78th minute strike. City's third successive away league defeat, their fifth loss in their last seven games in all competitions, leaves them languishing in fourth place with Chelsea also having a game in hand on them. Their predicament was simply summed up by Pellegrini before this game when City's manager admitted his side needed a perfect end to the season and a Chelsea stumble to regain pole position. Yet while Pellegrini has had his eyes set on tracking down the leaders, the weekend victories for Arsenal and Manchester United confirmed City are now in a testing battle to finish in the top three, which guarantees a place in next season's Champions League group stage In the circumstances, next weekend's Manchester derby has assumed even more significance than usual. "For today I'm very happy with the way the team played, but I'm very disappointed with the score," Pellegrini said. "All we can do is try to add the most amount of points we can and we will see who is first, second, third and fourth." I
from Top News on RSS Feeds http://ift.tt/1xYB6ot
London (AFP) - Manchester City's Premier League title defence is in tatters after a surprise 2-1 defeat at Crystal Palace left the champions nine points adrift of leaders Chelsea on Monday. Manuel Pellegrini's side were rocked as Glenn Murray's first half goal and Jason Puncheon's excellent free kick immediately after the restart gave Palace the cushion they needed to withstand late pressure after Yaya Toure had given City hope with a 78th minute strike. City's third successive away league defeat, their fifth loss in their last seven games in all competitions, leaves them languishing in fourth place with Chelsea also having a game in hand on them. Their predicament was simply summed up by Pellegrini before this game when City's manager admitted his side needed a perfect end to the season and a Chelsea stumble to regain pole position. Yet while Pellegrini has had his eyes set on tracking down the leaders, the weekend victories for Arsenal and Manchester United confirmed City are now in a testing battle to finish in the top three, which guarantees a place in next season's Champions League group stage In the circumstances, next weekend's Manchester derby has assumed even more significance than usual. "For today I'm very happy with the way the team played, but I'm very disappointed with the score," Pellegrini said. "All we can do is try to add the most amount of points we can and we will see who is first, second, third and fourth." Ifrom Top News on RSS Feeds http://ift.tt/1xYB6ot
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