Man City not finished, vows defiant Mancini

Coach Roberto Mancini believes that Manchester City's 3-1 victory at Newcastle United sent a clear message that it will have a major say in the destination of the Premier League title.

City is still six points behind Alex Ferguson's Manchester United, which beat it a week ago, but his players' reaction at St. James' Park on Saturday delighted Mancini.

However, there was an unsavory aftermath to the game when it emerged that Aleksandar Kolarov, the City defender, was the subject of a police investigation.

Kolarov, a Serbian, is believed to have had angry exchanges with a fan who was waving an Albanian flag.

There is a long history of bitter tension between Serbia and Albania over Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

A spokesman for Northumbria Police confirmed they had received a report of racist language being used.

"We take such allegations extremely seriously and inquires are ongoing into the incident," he said.

City earned its win over Newcastle through goals from Sergio Aguero, Javi Garcia and Yaya Toure, but it was scant reward for the quality of its performance, particularly in the first half.

"The season is long," Mancini said.

"Sir Alex (Ferguson) knows that better than me. He knows this championship is not finished when there are only three games to the end. Now we have 21 games to the end, so it is still open.

"When you have a defeat against anybody, but in particular against United, it is important to win again very quickly - and we have started here, where I don't think a lot of teams can win. I was very satisfied with the performance."

When asked if he had special words for Ferguson in the wake of the win, Mancini said: "The message is only Happy Christmas for Dec 25."

City was leading 2-0 early in the second half and should have scored on several other occasions before Demba Ba claimed his 11th goal of the season to give Newcastle hope of avoiding its sixth defeat in seven games.

"I don't understand why we were missing all these chances in the first half," Mancini said.

"When you have six or eight chances, you need to score more goals.

"If not, it can be like the second half, when they scored their goal. It can change everything, and I was anxious.

"In the second half, Newcastle were better and they pushed into our half, but we had other chances to close out the game."

Mancini did not even include Mario Balotelli among his substitutes and he explained: "He is not in good form at this moment and it is better for him to carry on training and train well. When he is in good form, he will play."

Newcastle is now deep in relegation trouble, but manager Alan Pardew said: "There were a lot of pleasing things, but no points, which is my concern. We made a great start to the first half then Manchester City produced what they can - a 20-minute golden period when they got a goal and could have got another before their second."

(China Daily 12/17/2012 page24)