Pressure mounts for Mancini

Nigel de Jong has admitted coach Roberto Mancini is under pressure as Manchester City’s title bid has come off the rails in recent weeks.

City take on West Brom tonight having only picked up five points from their last five games and have slipped eight points behind Manchester United with just six matches left to play.

Mancini has one year left on his contract and is set to have talks over his future next month. But Dutch midfielder De Jong has claimed that Mancini may be in for a rough ride from his bosses.

“Manchester City hasn’t been champion for 44 years,” he said.

“The supporters are thinking about that a lot. But I think especially the board and the directors are stressed about it. The team is quite relaxed.

“Before the start of the season, we told each other we wanted to win the championship. Now we have come this far, it will be a disappointment if we fail. We have so much quality, we have to compete for the title. We remain very close as a team, there are not many egos at City.”

City could be without key players Yaya Toure and David Silva for tonight’s match — both are struggling with injuries, while Mario Balotelli is suspended after his fourth red card of the season last weekend.

Balotelli will not face further punishment over a studs-up challenge on Arsenal’s Alex Song, the FA confirmed yesterday. The FA have said they cannot take additional retrospective action over his disgraceful knee-high tackle on Song because it was seen by at least one of the four match officials.

A statement from the FA read: “Retrospective action in relation to the incident involving Mario Balotelli of Manchester City and Alex Song of Arsenal, which occurred in the 20th minute of Sunday’s game, will not be taken.

“Where at least one of the officials has seen the coming together of players retrospective action is not taken, regardless of whether they have seen the full extent of the challenge.”

The Italian striker may still have played his last game for the club, however after Mancini said he would look to sell him in the summer.

City have collected just five points from their last five outings, with Sunday’s defeat at Arsenal seeming the decisive blow.

But for the players to feature as West Brom visit the Etihad Stadium, there remains a strong will to at least go down fighting.

Defender Joleon Lescott said: “It’s out of our hands but we’ve got to keep going and if United slip up, then we’ve got to be there to capitalise.

“We’re professional and we owe it to the fans that we’re not going to roll over and die.”

Lescott believes City have another good reason to fight on — to at least ensure United do not leave the Etihad Stadium as champions later this month, as the sides meet on April 30.

Lescott, 29, said: “We don’t want to let them win it at the Etihad Stadium. We’ll do everything in our power not to let that happen.”

Mancini accepts his team appear to be falling short but is anxious to pick them up to at least ensure a strong finish.

He said: “When you start a project, it’s important that you improve. When you also work hard, you can pass by these difficult situations because you think that you can win the title. We were there for 28 games but we need to improve.

“This is the first time in two years that we’ve had three games without victory. It’s not easy, but we need to think positively. I’m proud of all my players for what we did until now, and they should be proud.

“We need only to continue to win because we need to do the maximum points that we can do and after we will see what’s happening at the end of the season.”

Meanwhile West Brom boss Roy Hodgson insists “no player should be bigger than his club” and that the manager should be the most powerful figure.

“It should be that no player is bigger than his club. No player should really be a stronger person than the manager at the club.

“I’m talking very globally here. I’m not referring to Balotelli.

“I don’t know the man from Adam. He might be the nicest fellow in the world, he might be a great pro. But, if you talk about Manchester United’s strength for many years, the fact that Alex is so good at his job is because he is so obviously above any of the players there.”