Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea all went down in the English Premier League over the New Year’s Eve weekend and it was shocks galore.
Arguably, City will be ruing their failure the most, given they had the opportunity to move three points clear, after United’s stunning 3-2 loss to bottom club Blackburn. Chelsea, meanwhile, simply seem out of the title race and their 3-1 loss to Aston Villa confirmed that.
The Sky Blues had looked the most likely to claim all three points against Sunderland on Sunday before Ji Dong-Won’s 93rd-minute winner. City had seen Edin Dzeko go close numerous times, while Micah Richards hit the crossbar on 88 minutes. But they kept pushing and eventually paid for it.
Mancini said: “We missed a big opportunity because we had a chance to go three points up on United. We are in an unlucky moment because we keep missing these chances to score.”
Indeed, perhaps City’s eagerness to move three points clear and unease at taking just a draw, ultimately cost them. In many ways, that’s a mental frailty which cost City.
Mancini, though, didn’t look at the situation like that, rather bemoaning missed chances and Sunderland’s good fortune with Ji’s goal coming after the Korean was clearly offside.
“We deserved to win this game, it’s incredible, but this is football,” he added. “Last year here was the same situation, I don’t know how many chances we had, and we lose the game in the end on a penalty. And [this time] apparently the goal was offside.”
However he later reflected: “A team like us, we can’t concede three of four counter-attacks at the end of the game. Sometimes when you are on the pitch you need to understand that there are some games when you can’t score. At that moment, you should understand ‘OK we stay’ and one point is better than nil.”
Meanwhile, United boss Sir Alex Ferguson had his 70th birthday celebrations ruined by Blackburn, who produced the upset of the season at Old Trafford.
“It is a disaster,” said the United manager. “I never expected it. We lost two terrible goals and you can’t do that.”
United had trailed 2-0 before coming back, with Dimitar Berbatov hitting the brace. They seemed destined for victory then, before Grant Hanley’s late winner which came after a David De Gea gaffe.
“At 2-2, I thought we were going to win it. It looked like the momentum was with us, but that third goal was a killer,” he said.
Elsewhere, Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas is up against it again, with his side’s poor 3-1 loss to Villa, leaving Chelsea battling to be out to make the Uefa Champions League next season, rather than the title.
“Now we are fifth, below the top four. But we have to wait and see,” AVB said.
He added: “Our reality is a fourth-placed finish, but that is not good enough. We have to continue to pursue the best possible finish in the league, and a humble finish for this club.”