Roberto Mancini Aiming For Premiership Title

Roberto Mancini has revealed that his Manchester City side will be aiming for the Premier League title this season.

Mancini has already spent over £100 million during the summer and has brought the likes of Mario Balotelli and James Milner to Eastlands.

And having assembled his squad over the summer the manager has revealed that just finishing in the top four would not be good enough for the club. 

Speaking to the Daily Mirror the Manchester City boss said: “Chelsea and Manchester United are on the top now, but the season is long and if we start well, we have a chance.

United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool have built their teams over four, five, six years or more, so for them it’s easy to play together as they have done so many times, for us it’s more difficult but we have good players so we have a chance.

A lot of teams in the past have spent big money to build a good squad. We spent this year - and last year too, though for me this is the first year.

“We’ve bought five young players, which is important for the future of the club, but we will probably need more time to work together.

“Not two or three months - two or three weeks working together will be enough. I have built my squad, my team, and I hope it will not just be a top four but even better and we can win a trophy. We have a better chance of doing that than last season.

“Our target is the title, not 72 or 73 points. We must play every game - Premier League, FA Cup, Europa League and Carling Cup - to win. This must be our mentality.

“We can’t think ‘we just want 72 points,’ we must go for the maximum and at the end of the season we’ll see.”

And Manchester City kicked off their season this afternoon against Tottenham Hotspur, the club that piped them to fourth spot last season.

Mancini picked Joe hart over Shay Given in goal for the opening match of the 2010/11 season and it proved to be a wise decision by the manager as Hart produced some outstanding saves to keep City in the match.

But after four minutes of extra time Tottenham and City had to settle for a 0-0 draw.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw