Roberto Mancini believes Man City stand a good chance of winning the title if they are still at the top of the Premier League this time next month.
Man City manager determined to still be top at end of the month
Roberto Mancini believes Manchester City stand a good chance of winning the title if they are still at the top of the Premier League this time next month.
City re-established their three-point lead at the summit by beating Liverpool 3-0 on Tuesday night, although Manchester United could respond by winning at Newcastle on Wednesday.
Mancini reckons January is vital to his own team's chances, with a busy schedule made more difficult by the impending departure of key midfielder Yaya Toure.
Toure, scorer of the second goal against Liverpool which capped an impressive performance, will head off to the African Cup of Nations with his brother Kolo after this weekend's FA Cup tie against United.
Mancini believes if City can overcome the absence of these players and maintain top spot they will be in pole position in the race for the Premier League crown.
Three-horse race
"This month without Yaya or Kolo when we play every three days that will be hard," said the Italian.
"January is a very crucial month for us because if we can stay on the top after January we have a big chance to win (the league)."
Mancini reckons there is now a three-way race for the title, after Tottenham kept the pressure on the Manchester clubs with a victory over West Brom.
"I think United are a strong team but we should think only of trying to win every game if possible and at the end we will see what happens," he added.
"Tottenham are also very close but I hope we stay there (at the top of the table) for a long time."
