Mancini vows more to come from Manchester City after Aston Villa thrashing

Nov 17, 2012 6:38:00 PM

The Italian was happy with the performance of his strikers in Saturday's comfortable victory at home, while Villa manager Paul Lambert is left frustrated by refereeing decisions

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has vowed that his side can improve further after demolishing Aston Villa 5-0 on Saturday.

City struggled in the first half against a resolute Villa back line, but got the break just before half-time as David Silva tapped in following a goalmouth scramble, while Carlos Tevez and Sergio Aguero split four goals between them after the break to seal a resounding win.

“We played well created a lot of chances but we also missed one or two opportunities in the first half,” Mancini told reporters.

“We can do better, but I hope we are starting to find the form of last season. We started to change things a few games ago and it seems to be paying off.”

The Italian had special praise for the club’s strikers who have begun to find the net on a regular basis, with Tevez and Aguero both scoring twice in a frantic second half.

“I’m very pleased that our strikers have now scored six goals in the last two games,” Mancini continued.

“It is important they are in good form and are finding the net on a regular basis.”

Villa manager Paul Lambert lambasted the assistant referee for his decision to award City a penalty in the 54th minute for an apparent handball by Andreas Weimann.

“That’s never a handball,” he told reporters.

“What the linesman saw there I do not know, [but] he saw something that 50,000 other people never saw.”

The Villans were not out of the contest at that point and had managed to frustrate City for large parts of the game, but that decision seemed to dent their confidence and they crumbled under the pressure from the home side.

“I thought Joe Hart did a brilliant save from Christian’s [Benteke] header [in the first half], he added.

“So we were well in the game, but the penalty was a real shocking decision.

“He [the assistant referee] said he was 100 per cent sure it hit his hand, [but] he [Weimann] jumped with his hands to try and get leverage but the Man City lad behind him was heading it so that to me is a guess.”

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