Carlos Tevez and Samir Nasri celebrates City's opener
On one hand, it has given their troubled campaign a silver lining but, on the other, Pardew believes the drain of the extra fixtures is the main reason his side have been dragged into a worrying fight for Premier League survival.
Toon fans will travel in their thousands to Benfica’s Estadio da Luz for the quarter-final first leg on Thursday, hoping they can take another step towards securing the club’s first major silverware since winning the old Fairs Cup in 1969.
But the stark reality is that the home game against Fulham three days later is now far more important – and Pardew has found himself between a rock and a hard place.
He claimed after they beat Stoke on March 10 that his team were effectively safe. But Wigan’s revival and this defeat leaves them just three points above the drop zone.
“We’ve approached every Europa League game to try to win it,” said Pardew. “You can fault us for that, but we think it’s the right approach and we will carry that forward into Thursday.
“But we have lost bodies in this campaign. It has cost us points and, without a shadow of a doubt, we would not be in this position if we were not in the Europa League.
“There are simply too many games in the competition for a Premier League team. I’m never going to change my opinion on that, even if we win the thing. It needs to be looked at. We’ve lost too many players through injury.
“Unless we win it, we won’t be in it next season and we won’t have that pressure, so we can compete for the top 10, top eight, top five.” Pardew is sure that Newcastle will survive, even though the Tyne-Wear derby on April 14 has taken on an extra edge with Sunderland reacting to their owntailspin by sacking Martin O’Neill.
“After the Stoke game I said that was an important win for us and put us in a position where I felt 40 points was achievable – and I have not changed my opinion,” said Pardew.
“But I’m sure people will stir it up and suck us into it.”
With six players out through injury, Newcastle had little chance against a City side who warmed up for their derby against United with goals from Carlos Tevez, David Silva, Vincent Kompany and a James Perch own-goal.
Roberto Mancini’s jokey admission afterwards that he feels like punching Samir Nasri could sum up his feelings towards many of his underachieving stars.
Newcastle boss Alan Pardew watches his team suffer a heavy defeat
We have lost bodies in this campaign. It has cost us points and, without a shadow of a doubt
Just as the inconsistent Nasri gave an all-too-rare reminder of his talents, collectively City showed a ruthless efficiency too often lacking this season.
City boss Mancini argues that if his players had performed with similar intensity in the defeats against Sunderland, Everton and Southampton, not to mention the costly draws at West Ham and QPR, the gap between them and United would not be an unassailable 15 points.
He admits some of his players have rested on their laurels in some games after winning the title last season, often playing at well below their peak levels of performance.
Retaining the title is beyond them now, but he feels the derby will at least give City the chance to underline his belief that United’s huge lead is not an accurate reflection of the quality of the two teams.
When asked what he felt when he saw Nasri put in the type of performance he did on Saturday, Mancini said: “I would like to give him a punch, because a player like him should play always like today. Always. Every game.
“Maybe one game, sometimes, he can play badly, but I can’t understand why a player with his quality doesn’t play like that in every game. The second year is always difficult to win [the title] again. Sometimes the player can think it is enough to play 50 per cent.”
Related articles
- Sir Alex Ferguson: I have big plans for Little Pea Javier Hernandez
- Manchester City 4 - Newcastle 0: City revive memories of past glories
- Sir Alex Ferguson: Roberto Mancini will stay at Manchester City
- ‘Chelsea have had it easy but not this time’ says Sir Alex Ferguson
No comments:
Post a Comment