Saturday 7 May 2016 15:13, UK
Manuel Pellegrini has tipped Manchester City to rediscover their devastating goalscoring form against Arsenal on Super Sunday.
City were disappointing in their Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid, struggling to create meaningful chances in either leg before eventually going down with a whimper 1-0 at the Bernabeu in midweek.
They have now won just one of their last five games but Pellegrini wants that put right on his last game at the Etihad, live on Sky Sports 1, where a win would lift City back above Arsenal into third in the Premier League.
"I always visualise the positive things - to try to win the game against Arsenal that allows us to be in the third position," Pellegrini said. "To play well, that is also very important. We didn't play well against Real Madrid and I don't like to play in that way.
"I expect us to recover our potential in attacking - that was our problem. It is a problem maybe none of the media expected we were going to have against Real Madrid, and it was the thing I was more sure of, that we were going to score a goal in some moments.
"I hope on Sunday we will continue being the most-scoring team in the Premier League for the third season in a row. We want to score goals and try to defend in the same way as we did against Real Madrid."
Both City and Arsenal looked well-placed to mount strong title challenges earlier in the season but neither side could find the required consistency.
Leicester took advantage of that, powering away to claim their first top-flight crown, while their closest challenge came from Tottenham, who have not finished top since 1961.
As other teams traditionally used to challenging for the title like Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool were never in contention, a feeling remains that both City and Arsenal have missed an opportunity.
However, Pellegrini said: "I don't think that because that would not be giving Leicester all the merit they deserve. To say they just won because the other teams didn't play well - I don't think so.
"They beat us, United, Chelsea. They deserved to win the title because they were the best team. I don't think all the big teams together couldn't play well - they just did it better.
"They were the best team and they were the best team because they had their best players in their best performance."
