Manchester City midfielder Adam Johnson has admitted the expensive Eastlands team should have mounted a serious challenge for the Premier League title.
City need just one win from their remaining four games to secure a place in next season's Champions League and have the chance to win their first trophy for 35 years when they face Stoke in the FA Cup final on Saturday.
City owner Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister of UAE and Minister of Presidential Affairs, would have expected a more sustained bid for the title.
Johnson said: "I'm disappointed that we are not in there. Personally, I think we should be and a lot of neutral people think we should be with the squad we have. But there was a couple of iffy results which we should have won."
Since a 3-0 drubbing by Liverpool at Anfield, City have won their last three games, the first of them the momentous FA Cup semi-final triumph over Manchester United.
Sunday's defeat of West Ham took them seven points clear of Tottenham in the battle for the final Champions League place.
"At the start of the season we wanted to be top two and having been in the top four all season we want to keep pushing," Johnson said. "We might yet finish even higher than fourth. We've just got to keep going. But that result at Liverpool didn't mean we thought Spurs could catch us. We knew we still had a few points on them and we've pushed that gap to seven, which is massive for us."
Johnson, 23, grew up watching Newcastle's European exploits, and cannot wait for a first taste of the Champions League. "I remember Barcelona [when Newcastle won 3-2 in 1997] and those nights — Faustino Asprilla and people like that," the winger said. "Those were the nights when I was growing up as a kid. Obviously, night matches were a bit special for me. I can't remember if I was allowed to stay up, or maybe I was just in the bedroom with my door locked. I remember the 3-2 game, Gillespie set a few up with crosses."
No comments:
Post a Comment