West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini calls for 'good performance' against Liverpool
Sunday 3 February 2019 23:44, UK
Manuel Pellegrini admits that he would like to do his old club Manchester City a favour on Monday night when his West Ham side host Premier League leaders Liverpool.
But Pellegrini says his main priority is to get West Ham's season back on track after three consecutive defeats in all competitions.
City have closed to withing two points of Liverpool and are looking to chase down the Reds and win the title, just as they did under Pellegrini in 2014.
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"If we win I will be very happy for our club first, because we need a good performance against the leaders," said the Hammers boss ahead of the Monday Night Football clash.
"After that, if we can give a hand to Manchester City, it's not our problem, but of course I am a fan of Manchester City also."
However, Pellegrini feels Liverpool's exit from both domestic cups will give them an edge in the title race and insists that Tottenham - who were knocked out of both cups last week - also cannot be discounted.
"It's more easy for the team that is involved in just two competitions, compared to the team that is involved in four," said the Chilean.
"Tottenham? You should never think that a team four or five points behind you are not involved in the title. Of course they are.
"City have to play the final of the Carabao Cup which will suspend a game. If they make the semi-final of the FA Cup, they must suspend another game.
"They have midweek with the Champions League, so it's not easy to compete in all the competitions.
"I talked about this four years ago. The major problem was that we were involved in all the competitions. We won one League Cup in that moment.
"We then went out of the FA Cup in the quarter-final against Wigan. If we'd continued in that FA Cup, I don't think we would have been able to play all the games. We didn't have time to do it."
