Manuel Pellegrini does not want the Sky Blues to let the much hyped European Cup Round of 4 tie against Real Madrid distract them.
City has to take the pitch thrice in Premiership before the opening leg of the grand tie comes knocking.
According to Pellegrini, at this point, the first task is not the Real Madrid match, but, the Chelsea match and a couple of others too and all of them carry huge value.
It’s always a bit hesitating to say in case of Manchester City that they have no chance to be the Premiership champions as it’s only in the last couple of weeks in 2012 and 2014 that they had changed the standings dramatically to clinch the crown.
But, this time around, even if you take their past heroics and immense resources into account, you would probably not feel as if they would do it again especially with Leicester scripting their fairy tale as well as they are.
So, what City is realistically looking for now is to be in first 4 and that’s something which they are still very much in control of as they are the 4th placed team having got 57 points in their 32 games.
But, they know that with points’ margin not too large between the 3rd, 4th and 5th placed teams, any two out of themselves, Arsenal and Manchester United can end up holding the last two top 4 positions.
Manchester United might come perilously close to City if they have the better of Villa on Saturday and City, playing on the same day, fails to counter Chelsea in London.
So, it’s time to be careful as far as City is concerned and Pellegrini, being the astute boss that he always has been, is wary of the situation and is trying his bit to keep his group focussed on present and take it all one-by-one.