Boss Mancini remains confident despite defeat

ROBERTO Mancini remains confident Manchester City can claim the Barclays Premier League title after Swansea dealt a severe blow to their hopes with a 1–0 victory at the Liberty Stadium.

Luke Moore came off the bench to head the game’s only goal seven minutes from time.

But it was far from a smash–and–grab effort from Brendan Rodgers’ men, who dominated for long periods after City goalkeeper Joe Hart saved Scott Sinclair’s first–half penalty.

Manchester United’s 2–0 victory over West Brom at Old Trafford means their city rivals will go into next weekend off the top of the table for the first time since October 15th.

City could be four points adrift by the time they host Chelsea next Monday, but Mancini feels a second 1–0 defeat in four days, following Thursday evening’s Europa League reverse at Sporting Lisbon, does little to alter the overall title picture.

“It’s been difficult the last four days for me, but football is this — sometimes you can lose,” he said.

“I don’t think that we deserved to lose this game. I should say that Swansea played very well in the first 30 minutes. They played very good football.

“But in the second half we had control of the game. We missed three or four chances on the counter–attack and we conceded a stupid goal.

“Now it’s important that we are very confident together because it changes nothing. It is better to stay on the top and now we are behind, but this doesn’t change our targets.”

On a wholly unsatisfactory afternoon for City, England midfielder Gareth Barry reacted angrily to being substituted in the first half before Yaya Toure and Mario Balotelli were reportedly embroiled in a heated row at the interval.

City defender Micah Richards had a late header ruled out for offside before Swansea held out for a deserved win and the manner of their performance delighted Rodgers.