Manuel Pellegrini hailed his side’s 3-1 win over West Brom as ‘very important’ on what was a snowy day of football.
Chelsea had gone six points clear earlier in the day after beating West Ham and the pressure was on Manchester City to win. However, they did it with style, scoring three goals in the first half courtesy of Yaya Toure, Fernando and David Silva.
“It’s a very important game as it’s not easy to play on Boxing Day,” Pellegrini said. “It’s important to start this week of three games in this way. We are trying to keep winning, not think about Chelsea. We have 20 games more to see which team does better in the second half of the season. I don’t think there are just two teams in the race for the title.”
Manchester City are now three points behind Chelsea and have won eight games in a row – the last two being without a recognized striker with the injuries of Stevan Jovetic, Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko. Instead, it was the midfielders who provided the goals at the Hawthornes:
“We are doing well [with no strikers]. We have changed the style of play to give more time for the midfielders to arrive in the box. We are creating space and using the space at the right moments. It’s very important that our midfielders score.”
