Manchester City's Roberto Mancini happy with ‘deserved’ Aston Villa win

Joleon Lescott's second half strike was enough to secure a 1-0 win for the Eastlands outfit as they returned to the top of the Premier League table on Sunday

14-Feb-2012 5:46:30 AM

By Kavan Young

More On :  Manchester City, Roberto Mancini
Roberto Mancini
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Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has hailed his side's "deserved" win over Aston Villa on Sunday that saw the Eastlands outfit return to the top of the Premier League table.

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Joleon Lescott grabbed the only goal of the game to secure all three points at Villa Park, but the Italian believes his team's performance merited more than the meagre 1-0 scoreline.

Mancini told the club's official website: “It was a difficult game, but we knew it would be. We were unlucky, but in the end we deserved to win. We deserved to score maybe three or four goals.

"They had only one chance, they didn't have any for 90 minutes. I think we had 10. But it would have been better to score two goals to take all the risk away before the end.

"It is important that we win away like we were doing at the start of the season. We had 70 per cent of the possession, but Aston Villa are a strong team and they defend very well.”

The former Inter coach also praised Joe Hart for his performance, after the goalkeeper pulled off a match-winning save from Aston Villa striker’s Darren Bent in the dying minutes.

Mancini said: “Joe is young, and there are other goalkeepers with more experience. He's one of the best. He can improve but he has many assets and could become one of the top keepers."

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