The Blues regained their two-point lead at the top of the Premier League with a battling 1-0 win at Aston Villa.
And, after a break for the two legs of their Europa League tie against Porto, the Blues will face consecutive home games against Blackburn and Bolton. But the calm and collected manager said that until City have lifted the league trophy, they can never claim to be the cocks of Manchester, never mind the best team in the country.
“United are still better than us,” said Mancini. “They have won everything in the last 10 years. Until we win the title, they are better.”
Mancini was delighted with the application shown by his players, as well as their defensive qualities, in a tough win decided by defender Joleon Lescott’s goal and Joe Hart’s brilliant late reflex save from Darren Bent.
Click below to watch Mancini's post-match thoughts
“I’m very pleased with all the players because I think they did a very good performance,” said Mancini. “They did very well.
“We conceded only one chance. We would have been very unlucky if they scored in the last minute.
“We had a lot more possession and I don’t know how many chances we had to score. It is important to have a good goalkeeper, to have a good squad.
“Joe is a good keeper, he is young, he needs to improve but he can become one of the best goalkeepers in the world.
“He has played three seasons in the Premier League and when a player is young, he needs to work a lot. I think he has improved a lot in the last three years, but he is only 24.
“If we say he is now one of the best keepers, then it’s bad for him.”
After watching Hart deny Villa a share of the spoils and condemn his side to a fifth defeat in seven home matches, manager Alex McLeish was forced to
disagree.
“He is young but he is already an England international goalie,” said McLeish.
“He is going to be around for a long time to come and experience is going to make him even better. But he is probably in the top five goalies in the world. I would say he is, yeah.
“I wouldn’t say there was a lot better than Joe Hart. Mancini’s opinion might be different to mine.”
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Excellent mindgames Bobby. For all their moronic twittering, United know already that their number is up.
"the cocks of Manchester" ????
i don't think even City could ever take that title away from man yoo
I can think of outfield players who would improve our squad, but no other goalkeeper would be an improvement.
Liverpool fans said Joe kept us in the semi final game, I said he's just doing his job, the ref kept Liverpool in the game, hed id not do his job!!
Joe will be world No 1 for a long time!!
CTID!!
Just keep deflecting the pressure to just outside Manchester while we keep winning :) BLUE MOON RISING!
I'm not sure being the cocks of Manchester is something City covet.
Mind games Bobby, mind games............
Mind games Roberto, but don't let our players think that or it will have a negative effect. We can win the title, self-belief is important, but not arrogance like you know who
Good comments. Keeping Joe grounded and not giving the swamp ammunition to raise their game.
It would have been incredibly unlucky if we did not get 3 points yesterday - but it was so frustrating too. When teams are playing 10 men behind the ball (which is virtually everyone we play now) we need to get more players in the box. I like that we do not just toss balls in the box for the sake of it but Aguero was coming deep to get into the game and there was so many times we was in to box in good positions but lack of players in there.
But that should change now Yaya is back!
There; you've heard it from the horses mouth, that'll do for me. Not mind games, just facts.
Respectful comments from a respectful manager and team. Maybe some others could learn from him..