David Silva

Manchester City midfielder David Silva has said that manager Roberto Mancini is the true champion of the club because he has protected his players from the pressure of winning the title this season.

Mancini has managed to go one step ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson by being the most effective when it comes to the mind games this season.

After Manchester United established an eight point lead at the top of the table, Mancini said that it was very difficult for Manchester city to win the title. He almost appeared to hand the title on a plate to United.
Instead of being a negative on the team, it worked positively bringing out the best in them in the next few matches.

Fortunately, Manchester United dropped a number of points in the subsequent matches including the defeat at Wigan and the draw with Everton at home. This meant that City came into the match against United at the Etihad stadium knowing that they could go top of the table with a win. United played very defensively throughout the match, while City were positive throughout the encounter and won the match through a goal from Vincent Kompany. David Silva said after the match that the protection from the pressure of winning the title makes Mancini the best manager this season.

"This is an important moment for us psychologically because we knew we had to win this game. Mentally we knew we had to win it. We did that and now we have to continue concentrating on the job. It does give us the confidence we need for the last two games. Perhaps Roberto has deflected pressure from us by saying the title is over. He has certainly taken the pressure off the players, which always helps because the pressure is always there between Manchester United and City," said Silva.