After Manchester City’s win against West Bromwich Albion at the weekend, manager Manuel Pellegrini has stated that City are still in contention to win the league.

Many, myself included, believe that the league is now beyond our reach. Even if Hull had held off Chelsea today for a draw, the deficit is just too much for this Manchester City team to pull back.

This is not to sound defeatist, but you cannot expect a team to continually play catch up, and this is the time when City’s lack of consistency will make them pay.

Manuel Pellegrini however sees the remaining fixtures as games that could potentially see City finish well, providing of course that Chelsea drop points.

“It’s not just to finish in a proud way. Football has a lot of difficult moments, you never know what will happen when you have 24 more points to play for. Last season we were nine points behind Chelsea with three games in hand but we were also eight behind Arsenal. Especially in this league that is so easy for every team to beat another team.”

It is difficult to tell from an interview like this whether Manuel Pellegrini truly believes the league title is still obtainable, or if it is a motivational tactic. It is understandable that Pellegrini won’t want the City players to let off, given that both his job and potentially Manchester City’s top four position relies upon a strong finish to the season.

“I don’t think they are a winning machine all the time. I think you ask me maybe two or three weeks before I am sure from now until the end of the season every team will drop points so it’s important to return to our normal performance and win our games.”

Manuel Pellegrini does acknowledge the importance of these games is also to solidify second. With 3rd place only 1 point shy of City, it is a very real danger that if the performances aren’t good enough, City could have a catastrophic end to the season.

“After[the next few weeks] we will see what happens with Chelsea. Maybe we can win all the games and maybe we can retain the title. The important thing is they must feel pressure. If you don’t win it’s easy for them. We depend just on these eight games at least to finish in the same position we are now.”

You find it hard to think that Manchester City won’t be motivated for the rest of the season. One, there is a Manchester Derby to prepare for. Two, the players must be aware that if they somehow fall down the league positions, the likelihood of a clear out at City becomes more of a certainty.