Manchester City’s improved defence after they maintained their perfect home record with a 3-0 win against Swansea on Sunday afternoon has left manager Manuel Pellegrini with plenty of Christmas cheer.
The Chilean’s team have now hit 27 goals in seven games at the Etihad with Alvaro Negredo blasting in a free kick to start the scoring before Samir Nasri secured the win with a second-half double.
After criticising City’s defending during the week, Pellegrini was pleased with how his side managed to keep Swansea scoreless.
“I’m very pleased because we won against a very strong team. It’s not easy to play against them, they have a lot of possession,” he told reporters.
“We played too quickly in the first-half but we defended very well which is very important. Although they had a lot of the ball, I can only remember one good chance for Swansea in the first-half after we scored.”
“In other games, especially last Wednesday [against Plzen], we didn’t defend well. I think today when Swansea played very well after we scored the first goal, we defended very well.”
After speaking in the week about clearing his head and shaking off last season’s disappointments, Samir Nasri put in another impressive performance for City which delighted the Chilean.
“He’s playing free, he’s happy – he feels he’s an important player and the way the team plays is very comfortable for him,” Pellegrini continued.
“All of you know that he’s a big player. I’ve played against him in the Champions League and he’s a very good player. He’s again playing how we know he can play.”
The Sky Blues will now go searching for their first away win of the season in the league when they head to West Bromwich Albion on Wednesday night, before travelling to Southampton on Saturday.
Pellegrini is optimistic about their chances.
“We hope that now we can start winning away – we deserved to win some other games we lost but in this week we have six points to play for,” he said.
Image courtesy of MCFC via YouTube, with thanks.
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