Mancini lauds City slickers

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini was delighted with his side's performance after their 5-1 victory over Birmingham at Eastlands on Sunday.

The UEFA Champions League chasers routed the Blues in what looked a tricky fixture before kick-off, with braces from Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor and a first goal of the season for Nedum Onuoha securing an impressive victory.

Mancini's side are now sitting pretty in fourth place, four points clear of Tottenham, but the Italian conceded that he would rather have a succession of scrappy wins to confirm their qualification rather than the goalscoring explosion they have enjoyed in recent games.

"I think that it will be better if we win the next five games 1-0," Mancini told Sky Sports.

"Today we played fantastic and I'm very happy, so congratulations to my players because they played very well."

Good chance

When asked whether he felt his side would make fourth place at the end of the season, Mancini remained cautious, but confirmed that if his side played the way that they have been recently, he could see them getting into the Champions League.

"It all depends on us, if we continue to play like today or like at Burnley then we have a good chance," he added.

"But it's important we don't lose concentration.

"The Premiership is not finished now so we must continue to play like today and we must continue to improve our performance because I think we played good football."