Mancini pledges future to City

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini insists he will be at Eastlands next season when the club could be hosting Champions League football for the first time.

The Italian boss was quick to distance himself from reports linking him with a move to Juventus following the 6-1 victory against Burnley which took City back into fourth place in the Barclays Premier League.

Mancini says he is enjoying life in England and contrary to reports appears in no hurry to return home.

Told he had said ’Juventus was a special club’, he responded: “Manchester City is a special club.

“I never said those things. I am manager of Manchester City and I am happy to stay here.”

Instead he is focusing on the last six games of the season and looking to keep Tottenham, Liverpool and Aston Villa at bay in the run-in and seal qualification for the Champions League preliminaries.

City have to face Spurs, who relinquished fourth spot, and Villa as well as Manchester United and Arsenal.

He said: “We know it will be difficult but we want to win these remaining games. If we continue to play like this and maybe improve our performance we have a good chance.”

City raced into a 5-0 lead at half-time – a Premier League record – with three goals in the space of three minutes.

Adam Johnson saw a shot take a deflection off a defender and rattle the post before they made the breakthrough in the fourth minute. Burnley were guilty of slack marking when Johnson delivered a corner from the left and Emmanuel Adebayor took advantage to rifle in a shot that seemed to take a deflection on the way in.

A minute later it got even worse for the home side when Craig Bellamy latched on to a through ball from Carlos Tevez and guided it past Brian Jensen.

The Burnley goalkeeper conceded a third in the seventh minute after making a basic error. He spilled Adebayor’s weak shot and Tevez was on hand for his 26th goal of the season.

City extended their lead in the 20th minute with Patrick Vieira’s first goal for the club. He powered home a header following a corner from Johnson.

Jensen looked out of sorts and he was beaten again in the 44th minute only for Tevez’s effort to come back off the post after being released by Bellamy.

City did not have long to wait for another goal, however, with Adebayor extending their lead with a clinical finish.

With the rain teeming down and the pitch waterlogged, Vincent Kompany then headed home in the 58th minute before Steven Fletcher got his 12th goal of the season for Burnley.

Mancini said: “It is important Emmanuel and Tevez carry on scoring until the end of the season. But if you have other players who can score as well it is a bonus.

“Emmanuel’s fitness is improving after a month out and he was better today than against Wigan. I felt if it had not rained we would have got more goals.”

Burnley have now lost 11 out of 13 league games since Brian Laws took charge and are facing a swift return to the second tier.

The former Sheffield Wednesday boss knows it is is vital they get something from fellow strugglers Hull on Saturday.

He said: “You cannot ignore the fact we shot ourselves in the foot. We have got to tighten up.

“If we keep performing like that we have no chance of surviving in the Premier League. Let’s hope this is a one-off. We have five games to go and thankfully we are still in the mix.”