Mancini feels United don't deserve to be 15 points up, Hart feels otherwise

Joe Hart (C) of Manchester City enjoys his sides 2-0 victory with manager Roberto Mancini (L)

According to British media, Roberto Mancini has said that Manchester United do not deserve to be 15 points ahead and insists that the league table is deceptive. With 8 games left, the Italian is hoping to close in the gap between City and United by maintaining a winning record.

The league champions are facing Manchester United on Monday at Old Trafford and Mancini wants to go there and show that City doesn’t deserve to be 15 points behind.

Mancini was quoted as saying,

“We don’t want to go there to lose the game. We want to go there to try to win.”

“The difference is that we have scored 20 goals less than last year,” Mancini said. “Only this difference. We have scored less goals than last year. “We concede the same, we have the best defence, we are missing only these goals. But we have had a lot of injuries, we lost Sergio [Agüero], we lost Mario [Balotelli]. Mario scored 15 goals last season.”

However, Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart has said that City deserve to be 15 points adrift.

“It’s hard because it is over the season – it’s not like they have won a bonus game worth 15 points and gone above us,”

“But they have kept winning and we haven’t, so it has to be a true reflection.

“We have not quite finished teams off and little things have not gone our way – and I don’t mean that in terms of luck, but in the way we have played.

“United have been a machine who have kept killing, and we haven’t. They have just kept winning. They were always going to come back strongly and we intended to do the same.

“It’s just how the season panned out, but we have other things we have to keep an eye on and hopefully the season will still end in a positive way.”

Hart has received a lot of criticism this season after some errors for the club as well as the country but the Englishman insisted that he is ready to accept it at this level.

“It is what it is and you can take it how you want,” Hart said. “If you have done something wrong you take the criticism from those who matter to you, and everyone else is free to speak how they want to speak.

“Football is global and highly talked about, so in everything that is said, not all of it is going to be good. I don’t care about fair or unfair.

“I know how I am and what I take on board and what I don’t – and who I need to listen to.

“People will criticise you unfairly and then sometimes you get away with things and have to criticise yourself. I’m not concerned if people pick up on it as there are certain people I care about and others I am not particularly interested in.

“You can’t feel like a victim, we are not victims, we are right at the top of the game, playing hard and working hard.

“There is a lot placed on each other’s shoulders in terms of the dressing room, regardless of what is said outside.

“The boys take on board from the people who they need to take on board from, and the rest can say what they want.”