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Manuel Pellegrini said Manchester City will be “very frustrated” if they don’t become champions this season.
• Mooney: Favourites to outsiders
City, who have only taken one point from their last two games, trail leaders Liverpool and Chelsea and are outsiders in the three-horse title race.
However, Pellegrini believes their performance levels this season would have made them worthy winners of the division even though they have rarely been league leaders.
“I think that everyone of us will be very frustrated if we don’t win the league,” he said in a news conference. “Because if we were favourites to win the league it’s because of the way we played the whole part of the year, not because we were leading the table. If you review the table, we were only top one or two times but, the way we have played the whole year, of course I think we would be frustrated if we don’t win the league.”
City, who are waiting to see if David Silva will be fit to face West Bromwich Albion on Monday, are definitely without their 22-goal midfielder Yaya Toure.
They have also suffered this season when key players like Vincent Kompany, Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho have been sidelined.
Pellegrini added: “I don't like to use this excuse, especially after you draw the last game [against Sunderland] and maybe you think that we have less chance to win the title. Never in this moment will I try to have [an] excuse for those type of things. But we've had a lot of injuries.”
However, there is some good news as centre-back Matija Nastasic, who has been out since early February with a knee injury that has bemused the club’s doctors, has returned to training.
Pellegrini said: “He's working better this week. He works with the whole squad. I think that next week he will be ready to start work without any problem.”