Mancini: we deserved it, but it's over

What could have been ... Roberto Mancini still concedes it's over. Source: Jon Super / AP

Roberto Mancini felt Manchester City deserved a 2-1 win over Manchester United, but reiterated his view that the title race is 'finished'.

Reigning champions City closed the gap at the top to 12 points with seven games to play after substitute Sergio Aguero's fine individual strike settled the derby at Old Trafford. 

Mancini had insisted in the build-up to the game that City did not deserve to trail their local rivals by so many points and he was pleased with the performance as his side avenged a 3-2 home defeat by United earlier in the campaign.

"We are happy because we played very well," Mancini told Sky Sports. "This is the most important thing for us. We deserved to win.

"The game before against United we dominated that game and we lost in the end which I don't know how it's possible but this is football.

"Today was the same. We played very well, we deserved to win, but we conceded the goal because we didn't pay attention and didn't mark very well." 

The Italian is not anticipating a late charge to retain the title and is instead happy to concentrate on securing second position in the Premier League table.

He added: "I think it was important for the second position. I think that we don't deserve to stay 15 points behind, but this is football.

"We demonstrated tonight and also in the first game when we lost that we are the same. I think we probably showed that we deserve to stay very close."

When asked about the title, Mancini replied: "It's finished.

"What is important is only for the second position. [If we finish] 15, 12, 18 points behind it doesn't change anything. I think that we are like them but they score more than us and this is the difference."

		P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Man United	31	25	2	4	38	77
2	Man City	31	19	8	4	30	65
3	Chelsea	31	17	7	7	28	58
4	Tottenham	32	17	7	8	15	58
5	Arsenal	31	16	8	7	27	56
6	Everton	31	13	13	5	12	52
7	Liverpool	32	13	10	9	19	49
8	West Brom	32	13	5	14	-1	44
9	Swansea	32	10	11	11	1	41
10	Fulham	31	10	9	12	-4	39
11	Southampton	32	9	10	13	-7	37
12	West Ham	31	10	7	14	-9	37
13	Newcastle	32	10	6	16	-14	36
14	Norwich	32	7	14	11	-19	35
15	Stoke	32	7	13	12	-11	34
16	Aston Villa	32	8	9	15	-24	33
17	Sunderland	32	7	10	15	-11	31
18	Wigan	31	8	7	16	-20	31
19	QPR	32	4	12	16	-23	24
20	Reading	32	5	8	19	-27	23

Sir Alex Ferguson insists United will soldier on despite the derby defeat. 

"It was a very tense, competitive game, it was the two best teams in the country," Ferguson told Sky Sports. "The opening period was end to end, but nothing quite happened.

"We were quite dangerous a few times on the counter-attack and we maybe could have done better, but in the second half I thought we were the better team and were unlucky to lose it.

"If you look at the goals we lost, I know Aguero is a fantastic finisher but we gave him a lot of room and for the first goal certainly Tevez is interfering with play, but the linesman that side, there's no way he's giving that, but Tevez is clearly in the road of the keeper. If that's not interference, I don't know what is.

"I was pleased with the performance in the second half. I thought we did really well coming back from 1-0 down.

"If you look at the whole thing it's not a bad day for us in terms of the performance level. It was a very intense game. You don't want to lose a derby game but we're okay."

Ferguson dismissed suggestions that United's huge lead at the summit had allowed complacency to creep in and he is now turning his focus to Sunday's game at Stoke City.

He added: "We won't be doing that. If you look at the history of this club over the years, we always make it difficult for ourselves and have the supporters hanging on the edge of their seats.

"It's a 12-point lead and there are only seven games left. Each game that goes along you whittle them down.

"It's Stoke on Sunday which will be a big effort and we'll have a go."

Read more: http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11679/8626793/Roberto-Mancini-felt-Manchester-City-deserved-a-2-1-win-over-Manchester-United

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