City travel to Swansea City’s Liberty Stadium on Sunday hoping to make it five wins on the bounce and put themselves in pole position for the runners-up slot.
After naming unchanged line-ups for the victories over the Hoops and Spurs, the City boss must decide whether to stick with the same XI or reintroduce his captain and vice-captain.
“We’ll see tomorrow the starting XI and then we’ll see if Vincent or Yaya will start or if we’ll stick with the same team,” he told journalists at his pre-match press conference.
“Just Samir Nasri is injured – the rest of the players are fit, no problem.
“The title is gone but it’s never too late to win matches. For our team, the most important thing is to win the title but if you cannot, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter.
“It’s important to finish second and always as high as possible.
“It’s important for all of the big teams to try and win the title and if not, to qualify for the Champions League, and then it’s important to have the most amount of points you can have.”
The Jacks go into Sunday’s lunchtime clash knowing that they can still usurp Southampton and Spurs to clinch the final Europa League berth.
Pellegrini was full of praise for his Swansea counterpart Garry Monk, revealing his admiration for the 36-year old’s footballing philosophy.
“I spoke with Garry Monk when he came to the Etihad earlier this season,” Manuel revealed.
“We won the game but I told him after the game that they are a very good team, who play good football and so it’s no surprise that they’re so high in the table.
“It’s the way you understand football and I think Garry Monk sees it in the right way.
“I think Swansea have had a very good season, they are playing well, they have an important amount of points. They are fighting for the Europa League which is a good season for them. They will hope to finish in the same way.”
Sunday also sees Wilfried Bony make his long-awaited return to the Liberty Stadium.
By the Ivorian’s own admission, it hasn’t been a dream start to his City career but his manager handed his striker full backing, stating that fans can expect to see the best of the January acquisition next season.
“It’s important to have this clear – we didn’t bring Bony just for this year,” he asserted.
“We bought him because he’s a very good player, an important striker.
“Maybe it was a difficult start for him here mainly because of his injury. Maybe he’s not playing the amount of minutes he must play but I’m sure he’ll be a very important player next season.
“It’s important for him to have a good pre-season with us.”
Finally, the City boss rubbished claims that in-form Sergio Aguero could be tempted away in the summer.
Manuel declared that City do not need to sell “one of the best five players in the world” and the Argentine ace is more than satisfied with life at the Etihad Stadium.
“We are not a selling team. I think Sergio is very happy here,” Pellegrini stated.
“It’s important for Kun because it’s the season when he’s scored the most goals in his career. It’s important for us to be a scoring team – we continue to be the team that scores the most goals.
“I don’t know the way they choose the PFA team, so I cannot talk about that. All I can say is that Kun must be in every best team.
“When Sergio was coming back from his injury – he took some games to return to his top performance but I always say he is one of the top five players in the world.
“He’s improved a lot this season and I think he will continue to improve.”
